


The Portal to Beyond

by GokuGirl



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drama, Gen, Humor, Out of Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2000-03-13
Updated: 2000-03-13
Packaged: 2018-04-05 17:25:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 31,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4188498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GokuGirl/pseuds/GokuGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bulma discovers a new dimension and sends people over to investigate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My first attempt at a serious story. It's probably didn't work. It starts off a little confusing, but after a while, it should become clear. I apologize in advance for any grammar or spelling errors this may have.

Space is dark. Dark and _very_ boring. This is what the warrior, Kakarott, was thinking as he zoomed by a planet in his space pod.

Oh why couldn't I have stayed on Vejiita-sei? The tournament was coming up! I was sure to win first place in the third division this year. But instead my father sends me to some out-of-the-way, backwater planet no body has ever even heard of before. Life sucks.

Suddenly the mist that keeps you in a state of sleep while nourishing your body poured out and his silent complaints were ceased as he was swept into a dreamless slumber.

* * *

"Goku! Goten! Gohan! Dinner time!" Before ChiChi could barely finish her sentence, her two children and her husband pratically flew to the table. She shook her head as she set the dishes in front of them, narrowly escaping losing an arm in the process.

"The least you could do was to wait until _after_ I put them down!" She paused. "Goten dear, chew your food before you swallow. Goku, you shirt is most certainly _not_ an napkin. Gohan, good table manners!" she turned to Goku and Goten, "You two can learn a thing or two from him, you know." They rolled their eyes and resumed their piggish eating.

Soon, everything was consumed and three satisfied sayians rubbed their stomachs. Goten and Goku burped loudly. As they moved to leave the table, the phone rang.

"Moshi Moshi?" pause. "Oh hi Bulma!" pause. "You what? You want Gohan to come over and take a look at something? I'll ask him." Gohan nodded yes. "He says okay. Alright, bye!" ChiChi pressed the end button and placed it back onto the table. "That was weird. Gohan, why don't you take your brother along? He can play with Trunks while you're there."

"Okay, 'kaasan. Come on Goten." The two boys exited the house.

* * *

The pod crashed into a hillside of a deserted area. Dirt and dust particles were flung into the air from the impact.

"Arrived at destination. Initiating waking sequence." the onboard computer droned.

Soon Kakarott stretched and yawned. He pressed the button to open the hatch and stepped out. There was a sound like distant thunder and he grunted when he discovered that is was his stomach. He went off to a nearby forest to hunt.

Not far away from where Kakarott had landed, there was a teenage girl out in a field picking wild flowers. She was a rather lonlely girl, for no one would ever socialize with her and the few friends she did have lived too far away for daily visits.

"ChiChi! Time for lunch!" Ox King called. He was all she had left since her mother had died.

"Coming Papa!" She started to run in the direction of home, when a gust of wind picked up the hat she was wearing and carried it away.

"Oh! Come here!" she cried as she chased it up a small hill. It deposited her belonging on top of a medium-sized bush. "Got ya!" She gasped when she spotted Kakarott's pod by an oak tree. "What the heck is that thing?" Being the curious person she was, she decided that one little peek wouldn't hurt anything.

***

Kakarott had finally found a deer big enough to satisfy his hunger and was currently gnawing on a bone when his scouter picked up something with a rather strange power in the direction of his pod.

"There better not be anyone messing with my ship or there'll be hell to pay." He dropped the bone onto the ground and took to the air, hoping to catch the offender.

***

ChiChi's head jerked up. There was someone headed in her direction! She started to run and hide, but something stopped her. How in the world did she know that? It was strange. But there wasn't any time to stop and ponder, she had to find someplace. 

She ran about 200 yards, until she discovered a large boulder. She ducked behind it just in time because Kakarott had just came into sight.

"I know I'm not crazy, that's Nappa." he snickered at the thought. "Why isn't anyone here?" He took a seat next to the space ship to think.

__

Oh kami! He's not going away! I don't want to die, not now anyway. 

__ChiChi panicked, her heart pounding. She started to breath easier when the man had gotten up and prepared to fly away. That was another thing! What's with the flying anyway? Her relief was short-lived, however, when Kakarott turned and looked dead at her.

ChiChi muffled her scream as best she could, but still some sound was emitted.

"Alright, whoever you are just come on out and maybe I'll spare your life!" Kakarott shouted.

ChiChi didn't know what to do. Should she stay where she was? Then he would probably flush her out, killing her when he did. Should she surrender? The aura around him was just tainted with evil. 

__

He'll probably kill me anyways. I might as well get some answers before he does.

__She noticed it again. How do I know these things? It's just not normal!

"All right, all right! I surrender!" She stepped out into plain view with her hands held in front of her body. When Kakarott saw her, he burst into peals of laughter.

"You're just a little brat!"

"I am _not_ little and I am _not_ a brat!" she yelled angrily going off into a very harsh tirade.

Kakarott's scouter started to beap and he noticed that the numbers on the lens kept going up and up.

"Why is your ki so high?! It's just not possible!" he took the scouter off. "This piece of junk must be broken! That's the only explanation."

During his speech, ChiChi had stopped ranting and was looking at him strangely.

"What are you talking about? What does 'ki' mean?"

"You don't know what ki means?" Kakarott started in disbelief. "It's your life-energy. Your power reading! You control it and make it do whatever you want." ChiChi just stared on, confused. "I'll just show you." He extended his arm and pointed his index finger. A small yellow beam of light shot out and his a tree no more than 50 feet away from them. ChiChi gasped and ran to it. She saw that there was a hole, no more than 2 centimeters in circumference shot clear through the tree.

"Wow! That's what ki can do? It's amazing!" she said delighted.

"That was nothing." Kakarott went over to his pod where he proceeded to take stuff out.

"Can you teach me how to do that?"

He stopped what he was doing and froze. "You want me to **what**?"

"You heard me. I want you to teach me how to shoot beams and stuff, how to control my ki. And I You heard me. I want to learn how to shoot beams want you to teach me how."

Kakarott continued his work. "If you really want to learn, be here tomorrow at sunrise, in combat clothes, ready to work."

A smile spread wide over ChiChi's face. She hadn't been this happy in a long while. "You mean it?" Kakarott nodded, faintly amused. "Oh thank you! You won't regret it!" She ran over and flung her arms around the startled saiyan giving him a huge hug, then skipped off towards home.

"I think I already am."

* * *

Gohan approached the front door of the Capsule Corporation with his little brother about 20 minutes after Bulma had called with apprehension. He didn't know what could be going on behind that door.

"Niichan, what are you waiting for?" Goten wondered.

Gohan was startled out of his thoughts. "Huh? Oh nothing, Goten." he pressed the doorbell.

"Big brothers sure are weird!" Goten said quietly to himself while shaking his head.

Soon the front door was flung open wide and Trunks stood there in the doorway.

"Hey Goten! You wanna go up to my room and play Pokémon Stadium? I hoped you remembered your gold edition."

"Yup, I did. Let's go!" The two boys raced up the stairs, playfully pushing and shoving along the way.

***

Gohan knew exactly where to find Bulma, so he headed off in the direction of her lab and sure enough, there she was, sitting in front of a computer, pecking away at the keys.

"Bulma-san?" Gohan said softly. No answer. "Bulma-san?" he said a little louder. Still no answer. He walked over to her and tapped her on her shoulder while saying quite loudly "Bulma-san!"

She practically jumped ten feet into the air. She turned around quick with a wild expression on her face. She sighed when she saw who it was.

"Don't do that! Couldn't you have just quietly called my name or something?"

Gohan pulled up a stool and explained paitently. "I did. You didn't hear me." He glanced at the screen. "Is this what you called me over for?"

"It sure is! It's the greatest scientific discovery since," she paused, thoughtful, "since I invented the automatic automobile navigation device with the voice activation system!"

Gohan rolled his eyes. "Could you please tell me what it does?"

"Of course, but it's not a device, not yet." she hurried on seeing as Gohan was about to speak. "I have plans to build a device to get there, to check it out. But not now. It needs more study."

Gohan was hooked. "What is it?!" he asked excitedly.

"I found an alternate dimension!"

Gohan frowned, clearly disappointed. "Is that all? I was hoping for something more."

"That's not all baka yaro, would you just wait a minute and let me finish what I was saying?"

"Oh, gomen."

"Anyway," she gave him a look, daring him to interrupt her again, "there are many, many different dimensions, too many to count. I've created a program that scans for a particular one using given parimeters as a guideline. I found one that is relatively close to this dimension and timeline that we are currently in. It is the only one of it's kind. I want to mount an expedition to explore it." she stopped, looking at Gohan expectantly. When she didn't get the reponse she was waiting for, she cleared her throat loudly.

"Huh? Oh. May I ask how you discovered this?"

Bulma looked sheepish. "Well, that was by accident. You see, I was trying to create something that would revolutionalize tv and radio signals and by goofing on that project, I found something else. It was more or less an accident."

"Only you can find out something monumental by accident, Bulma-san." Gohan said chuckling. "How long until you send people over there?"

"I don't know. I'd say in about a month, three months tops."

"A MONTH!" Gohan screeched. "But I wanna go now! It's sound interesting!"

"Calm down! Be patient. Would you rather go now and get trapped and never see you friends, family, or **Videl** ever again or would you rather wait and have the experience of a life time?"

Gohan's face fell. "That's a good point. Okay, in one to two months I and- Who else is going besides me?"

"I was thinking about your father, Vegeta, Trunks and Goten."

"I don't know about Goten. 'Kaasan's been on his case, more than usual, about his school work and how important it is to develop good study habits early on in life. She's also constantly comparing him to me! Goten kind of resents me right now."

"Well I hope everything turns out okay." she started to usher him out of the lab. "I need to work on it, bye!"

"Okay!" Gohan said. "Bye Bulma-san." But he was talking to the door. "Nobody treats me right around here. Nobody at all." He moped all the way home to tell his mother and father the news.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The horizontal line seperates dimensions, three stars seperate scenes within a dimension.

"You're doing good kid, real good!" Kakarott told his student. It has been only a week since the training began and already she could call her ki upon will. Luckly, she had been previously trained in some form of martial arts or there would have been problems.

ChiChi wondered, as she concentrated on making one beam split into three seperate ones, why she had never noticed he was so young, not much older than she. Then again, she couldn't have guessed that she would be here, out in the middle of no where, practicing ki-controlling techniques with an alien! That's another thing that puzzled her. The alien race of 'sayian'. So much different than herself, yet so much the same. The tails, the transforming at a full moon, and the superior strength were just a few differences, but they didn't outweigh the sames. Not one bit and that was good.

Kakarott ofter wonndered why he hadn't anhialated the planets inhabitans by now. His mind told him it was because it wasn't worth it, but his heart said a totally different thing. His heart informed him that it was becuase of the girl.

He stopped his demonstration and turned to her. "Brat, I think you're now ready to spar with me. I need to see where you're at before we continue."

ChiChi frowned, annoyed. She hated when he called her that and made no show of hiding that fact.

"Excuse me, but my name is **not** a cursed thing you know! Kami will not strike you down if you say it and besides, calling me brat does not work when the one you are speaking to is the same age as you."

Kakarott looked at her with a weird expression on his face. "And just how do you know that then br-," she gave him a look, he sighed, "ChiChi?"

"I know because of 3 things: (1)Your voice hasn't gotten deep yet, (2)You look young, and (3)I just know!"

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Let's just get back to work, okay?"

"Fine."

They started to circle each other each keeping eye contact on the other. Abruptly, Kakarott blurred out of sight leaving ChiChi to wonder where he had gone.

"Hey! That's no fair! You're too fast for me!"

"Giving up so soon?" Kakarott's voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. "If you focus, you will be able to find me. Don't look for my body, look for my ki, my energy."

ChiChi concentrated hard. She squinted her eyes and looked all around, but could not seem to locate him. Suddenly, she spotted a faint light and turned towards it. If she tried hard enough, she could pinpoint his exact loccation.

"Ha! I found you!" The next time she got an exact spot, she leapt out and kicked him making him fall onto his back on the ground.

"How do you like that?"

Kakarott sat up, surprised. He didn't think she had _that_ much power.

"It was good, but you couldn't do it again."

"Try me."

This time Kakarott took to the air. Again, ChiChi made her protests heard.

"Hey! I can't fly! How am I supposed to catch you?"

That stopped him cold. "How can you **not** know how to fly? Bukujutsu is the most common and easiest skill to master!"

ChiChi, more than a little annoyed, made a sharp retort. "For you maybe. It's not a normal thing, here on Chikyuu, to see people zooming through the air like birds or airplanes!" She sat down on the ground in a huff and folded her arms across her chest.

Kakarott sighed and landed next to her. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm sorry. I should have asked you if you knew how instead of asuming." He laid down, gazing at the clouds.

After a couple of minutes of silence, ChiChi spoke. "What was life like back on Vejiita-sei?" she asked suddenly.

Kakarott sat up. "Do you really want to know? It's not a very nice story."

"It's alright. Go ahead." she responded.

"On Vejiita-sei, you were relatively on your own. You parents didn't force you to do things, you could basically do what you want, heck, there were barely any rules at all!"

"That sounds great!"

Kakarott shook his head sadly. "No it's not. It's the worst thing in the world. You're lucky to have parents to show that they care for you, take care of you, on Vejiita-sei, showing your true feelings was frowned upon."

"I only have one parent." ChiChi said quietly.

"At least you had that one."

"Do you have any siblings?"

"One. An older brother named Raditz. He mostly took after our mother. I take after our father, Bardock."

"What is the society like?"

"There isn't one."

"Oh come on! Be serious!"

"I am." he replied flatly. "All we do is be born, fight, and die early, if we're lucky. There's no love, no friendship, nothing at all. You are looking at a rare saiyan. A saiyan who thinks differently from the others, a saiyan who has emotions and isn't afraid to show them, a saiyan that wants to do more with his life than fight." he paused. "I'm the living definition of different." he added bitterly.

"What's so bad about being different? I'm different than most other humans, with this power I have and all. Being different should be a good thing, not bad. Just think, if you were just like all the other saiyans, your race would just be full of cold-hearted killers. Instead, your race has been given hope. There has to be others who feel the same way as you." She glanced at her watch. "Oops. I have to go home. I'll see you tomorrow."

"ChiChi?" Kakarott began.

She turned to face him. "Yes?"

"Thank you. Thank you for listening to me go on and on like that, thank you for just being a friend."

"No problem. In this life, you need all the friends you can get."

* * *

Gohan came over daily to see how the project was coming along. Every time he did, Bulma shooed him out as soon as possible. Life was pretty boring until the incident early Wednesday morning.

***

It was early. No, early isn't a good enough word to describe how early it was. It was so early, one could swear that the dew wasn't even on the gound yet. This is when Goku decided that sleeping, like people normally do at this hour, just wasn't enough. So he got up and got dressed and went into the kitchen for a snack. That was where he decided that he would go and train after he finished eating. That's not all. It wasn't enough that _he_ wanted to go out and excercise at this un-godly hour, but the fact that he thought Vegeta might enjoy it also. Putting his index and middle fingers to his forehead and locating his reluctant friends' ki, Goku teleported right into the Vegeta and Bulma's house. And right into Vegeta's and Bulma's bedroom. To make matters worse, he landed right smack-dab in the middle of Vegeta and Bulma themselves while they were, shall we say, expressing their love for one another.

Bulma was the first to scream, "AHHHHHH!", followed closely behind by Vegeta himself, "AHHHHHH!", Goku screamed last of all (and only because it seemed to be the trend), "AHHHHHH!".

"Goku!" "Kakarott!" Vegeta and Bulma said at the same time. "WHAT THE **HELL** ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" Bulma pulled the sheet up over her body.

"I wanted to ask Vegeta to come and spar with me." Goku replied in a little baby voice, with the look that just makes people melt into little puddles.

Bulma looked at the clock. "At this un-godly hour?"

"I didn't feel too much like sleeping so I thought I would come over here to get Vegeta so that we could spar."

"Kakarott, just get out. The mighty Prince of the Saiyans needs his sleep! I command you, begone dim-witted baka!"

"I knew I was going to regret telling him about the Knights of the Round Table ten hour marathon on television last night." Bulma muttered.

"Fine, fine. I'll just go back to bed." Goku climbed over Vegeta, knocking him to the floor in the process. Goku picked him up and placed him back on the bed. After taking one look at his face, he decided that it would be best to escape as fast as he could. Locking on to ChiChi's ki, he teleported home and right into bed.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note #2: I couldn't resist with some humor. I got to thinking and decided that this would be incredibly funny. I should have saved for Once Upon a Dragon Ball, but I didn't. Oh well.

***

Now _that_ was funny! I guess I could go home and study or something, but I'm all ready at the top of my class, so I wouldn't have a goal in mind. I know! I could go and see Videl! I haven't seen her outside of school in a while now. Knowing her, she's probably mad at me. I guess I'm going to have to stop off at the gift store and pick up a box of chocolate's or something.

***

__

5 days later...

__

Gohan arrived right on schedule for his now familiar routine of coming over, asking Bulma how her work was coming, whining we she told him it wasn't done, then moping all the way home. It was depresing. One day when he came though, Bulma was waiting for him at the front door.

"Uh Bulma-san? Why are you here and not in your lab?" Gohan asked her.

"I have some important news! Then dimension shifter machine is ready for a test run," seeing Gohan's eyes light up she continued, "but don't get your hopes up. You're only going to be there for five minutes."

"It doesn't matter. I'm still going into another dimension!"

"Yeah, well. I need to proceed with this test a.s.a.p. When are you available?"

"Today! Now in fact."

"Gohan, it's 7:00 a.m. in the morning, on a week day, and you have school in thirty minutes."

"The test takes five."

"You've got me there. Okay. This is what you do..." After explaining how the protective suit went on and showing him how to work the buttons just in case, Gohan was all set to go and as excited as could be.

"Now you be careful and try to observe everything!"

"Okay Bulma-san!"

Bulma moved over to a console and picked up a clip board. "Checking charge gauge,"she paused, "battery at maximum capacity." She glanced at the clipboard. "Checking equipment", she paused again, "everything's in perfect order." She set the clipboard down, moving over to an area that seemed to have the most buttons. "Initializing start sequence in T-minus 5 and counting, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. We have dimensional shifting!" She looked up. "Come back soon!"

The world around him faded to a pale gray as everything flashed by at a dizzying speed.

__

Next stop, an alternate reality. The way things could have ended up. What if I see something that I really shouldn't or don't really want to see?

__Gohan was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, he should not have went after all.  



	3. Chapter 3

Gohan opened his eyes to a landscape much like his own. _So far so good._ He opened the hatch and stepped out, looking at every thing he saw. Flowers, flowers, and more flowers how interesting.Then he heard voices just a few feet away.

"See? You block more effectively this way." pause. "Good job ChiChi!"

__

ChiChi? My 'kaasan ChiChi?

 ___But who's that with her?  
_

"Okay Kakarott, I'm ready to spar with you now."

__

Kakarott? Now this is getting weird.

 __He crept over to a large rock and peered around.  
__

That is my 'kaasan! I remember how she looked from the pictures she showed me. But why is 'tousan wearing saiyan armor?

__

Gohan watched them spar for about a minute, until his leg fell asleep. As he shifted his weight, a twig underneath him cracked loudly.

ChiChi froze and held up her hand to stop Kakarott, but that was unnecessary. They both looked in the direction the sound had come from.

"We both know your there and it would save a lot of trouble if you just come out." Kakarott said.

Gohan stepped out into open view. "Uh hi!"

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" ChiChi asked.

Gohan looked at his watch. He had about two and a half minutes remaining. "I can only tell you limited things because my time is running out, but I'll be back later to finish what I have started."

"Okay, go on."

"Well, I'm from another dimension. In it, you two are my parents. Kakarott, I know that you are a saiyan from the planet Vejiita-sei. You have a tail and can transform at the sight of the full moon. Your father's name is Bardock and your brother's name is Raditz." Gohan glanced at his watch again. "Oops. I have to go. Be back soon!" He ran off to the ship where he was transported away in a flash of light, leaving a speechless ChiChi and Kakarott in his wake. 

"Do you believe him?" ChiChi asked her friend.

"I have no choice."

* * *

The return trip was as dull as it was before and in no time he was back in front of a very worried Bulma.

"You made it back safely! I had my doubts though."

Gohah frowned. "You thought I was incapable of using the device?"

"No! It's not that! It's the readings I got when you left. I don't think you can go to that place this way. I'll have to think of another."

Gohan instantly brightened at the mention of the other dimension. "That's another thing I have to tell you. I met my 'tousan and 'kaasan when they were kids!"

Bulma gasped. "You did?"

Gohan's look became thoughtful. "That's another thing. My 'kaasan was the same, but my 'tousan had on saiyan armor! That was weird. But when I go back, you'll have to give me at least two hours." He remembered what she had said about the ship. "What happened with it?"

"Well at first everything was going smoothly, then all of a sudden the readings became erratical. The level for the energy remaining dropped to a dangerous level because the ship was giving it off unecessarily." she sighed. "There is a lot to fix all right."

"I can wait. I'm going to tell my parents what happened and ask 'tousan why he was wearing the armor at the time."

"Gohan, just because you saw your parents together does not mean that the timeline is the same way as ours. Different things could have happened to make the outcome turn out a different way. It would be pointless to ask."

"I guess you're right. I'll leave you to your work now." Gohan left her lab and headed for school.

* * *

ChiChi and Goku sat down on the ground, opposite each other. "I guess that was a lot to take in, huh?" ChiChi asked him.

"It sure was. I can't believe that in his dimension we have a child together! Oh well, he said he would be back and I believe he will."

"Did you notice the symbol on the ship? I think it was a Capsule Corp. brand. I know Bulma Briefs, the daughter of the president, pretty well. I'm going to have a talk with her. Are you coming Kakarott?"

"Sure. My schedule is clear." He took to the air.

"Uh Kakarott? Remember, I don't know how to fly!"

He returned to the ground. A sheepish look on his face and one hand behind his head like the other Goku we all know and love. "Gomen, but maybe it's time you did."

***

Kakarott first had to teach her to utilize her ki for something other than throwing out energy. He told her that it's really impossible for you to be lighter than air because her bones wern't hollow like birds' were.

"You use your energy to propell yourself. Since you already know how to control it, it should be pretty easy for you to master." He then told her to try.

The first ten times were an utter disaster, forcing Kakarott to teach her in a way that he thought he wouldn't have to do. So he picked her up and went high above Chikyuu, when he decided that they were high enough, he dropped her without warning.

ChiChi was surprised. One minute she was in her friends' strong arms and the next she was free-falling. "KAKAROTT! WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!" She screamed with all of her might until she realized that she wasn't going to be rescued any time soon. "I guess it's up to me to prevent my coming to a rather unpleasant crash landing." She concentrated and focused her energy. She was too preoccupied to notice that she had slowed down, in fact, she had stopped falling entirely.

Kakarott flew down to her. "You did it! You're flying!"

She opened her eyes slowly. She did do it! She started to laugh and grabbed Kakarott in a hug. Then, as if she just remembered she hated him for doing that, she punched him dead on the jaw.

"Ow!"

"Why did you do that?! I could have died you know!"

"It wasn't as if I wanted to do that! You just weren't learning any other way. On Vejiita-sei, they teach kids this way all of the time."

"I don't know if this has occurred to you yet, but you're no longer on Vejiita-sei. So stop acting like it!" She turned and flew off in the direction of her home.

Kakarott followed closely behind. "I'm sorry if I scared you." She kept going as if she hadn't heard. Kakarott zoomed ahead and stopped her. "Can you ever forgive me?"

"I don't know." She flew away again and this time Kakarott let her.

***

ChiChi was all that Kakarott could think about that night. He didn't know why though. _I am_ _ **not**_ _going soft and I know it! I just always was different from the others._ He made up his mind then and there that he was going to get ChiChi to forgive him or die trying. _She's the only friend I've ever had! I'm not just going to give up so easily._ He flew to where he knew her home was, peeking into every window trying to find hers. _Aha! There is is. And she left it open! How convenient._ He climbed through and tip-toed to her bedside, tripping over a shoe on the way. "Ow!" he whispered, rubbing is foot. _Naturally I would trip on something at a time like this._ He stepped over to her, shaking her gently to wake up.

ChiChi's eyes shot open and she started to scream, but it was muffled when Kakarott covered her mouth with his hand. She bit his finger to get him to stop.

"What the _hell_ are you doing here?"

"ChiChi," he sat down next to her, grabbing her hand. "I love you. You're my one and only true friend. It hurt me to see that I had hurt you and I'm trying to make up for it."

Tears came to ChiChi's eyes.

"What? Did I do something else wrong?" Kakarott was confused. He had never seen a reaction like that before.

ChiChi shook her head, smiling. "No, you didn't. I'm just happy, that's all." She grabbed him in a hug. "I love you too."

Kakarott put his arms around her and just held her. The two stayed that way for the rest of the night, as they had falled asleep in each others arms.

***

The next day, Kakarott and ChiChi were still asleep when Ox King came into her room to wake her.

"ChiChi! What is a _boy_ doing in the bed with you?!"

ChiChi sat up, running the sleep from her eyes. She opened them and looked right at her father.

"Oh Kami! 'Tousan, it's not what you think!" She elbowed Kakarott in his side. He just grunted and rolled over, pulling her more tightly to him. She elbowed him again. This tiem he actually opened his eyes.

"Oh hello." he stuck out his hand. "My name's Kakarott, nice to meet ya."

ChiChi turned to him in disbelief. "How can you be so calm at a time like this?"

"Because I know I didn't do anything wrong, this time at least."

ChiChi got up and put on a robe. "'Tousan, Kakarott had simply come over to apologize to me for dropping me 70 feet from the ground and we fell asleep. That's all."

"Okay, I believe you... he WHAT?! Are you hurt?"

"No. I just stopped myself before I hit the ground by using ki. He was only teaching me how to fly."

During this exchange, Kakarott had gotten up and was about to leave the way he came in.

"Hold it right there, mister!" ChiChi halted him without even turning around. He had a feeling that she would be doing this a lot if they remained friends, especially if it turned into something more. "Where do you think _you'r_ e going? You're a part of this too!"

"Gomen. What do you want me to do then?"

"Tell my 'Tousan all about yourself. About where you are from, the customs there, about your family, etc."

Kakarott turned to Ox King and grew grave. "If you want to hear a very disturbing story, sit right here and I'll tell it to you." Ox King nodded so Kakarott began his tale, it lasted a couple of hours and he added things that even ChiChi didn't know about. When he finished, it was around 8:00 a.m. and they all were hungry.

"I'll cook so you two can go spar if you want." Before the words even finished leaving his mouth, ChiChi and Kakarott had leaped out of the window and flew away.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to that."


	4. Chapter 4

When Gohan arrived home, he couldn't resist asking his father that question so he cornered him in the kitchen and sat down opposite of him.

"'Tousan, when I went to that alternate dimension today, I saw you and 'Kaasan..."

"Oh did you now?" Goku asked between bites.

"Yes and I saw something very strange."

"Nani?" he kept on eating at his incredible pace.

"You were wearing saiyan armor." This stopped Goku and he dropped his spoon with a clatter.

"Nani?!"

"Yeah. I wonder why, but I'm going back as soon as Bulma-san fixes the problems. After the test run, she wants you to be one of the ones who go on the real mission."

"Really? This will be fun! I can't wait!"

"The feeling is mutual. She also said that Vegeta, Trunks, and Goten could come too. It'll be a regular Saiyans Night Out."

Goku suddenly frowned. "We better not tell your mother now, you know how she is. She can get downright scary sometimes!"

"You're not kidding! I guess I can have Bulma-san tell her after we leave. Then she won't try to stop us."

"That's a good idea."

"I just wish the machine had worked properly I still have to go back and explain things to them."

"What did you say?"

"I just told them that," Gohan grew sheepish. "I was their future son, about what I know about saiyans, and that I would be back."

Goku frowned again. "You know, what you told them about you being their future son you should have kept to yourself, at least until after you were born there. This could jepordize your birth. That's why I had to keep Mirai Trunks' real identity a secret. I'm surprised at you, Gohan."

Gohan looked at the table. "I'm sorry 'Tousan." 

"It's okay." Goku grinned again. "We're just going to have to make sure that they _do_ get together and have a kid or two."

"That would be interesting..."

* * *

ChiChi and Kakarott were still outside when Ox King called them for breakfast, but they had long since quit sparring. Instead, they were sitting in the soft grass just talking.

"It's amazing, you know." Kakarott began. "I've never felt as comfortable with anyone as I do with you."

"That's good to hear."

"Although, you have to admit, I feel kind of strange. Do you feel it too?"

"What? All I feel is that I want to be around you, talk to you, be your friend."

"That's exactly what I'm talking about. I think I know what it is, but I can't be sure until much later on."

"Tell me."

"On Vejiita-sei there is something that we call the "bond". It has no real name, yet it plays a big role in society. The royal ones usually don't have it, it's the lowers classes that more commonly do."

"Go on."

"When you find that one person, you bond instantly with them although a bond has been known to be created over time, but it's not the same. Anyway, you feel like you can't be apart from that person, you love just being next to them, also psychic abilities have also been known to exist. The two saiyans can hear each others thoughts and can feel when each other are in danger. There is a downside to this though."

"What is it?"

"Ignoring the bond is _not_ an option. It has dire consequences it you do. It usually strengthens if you pull away, but sometimes, it's drives the person crazy until it kills them."

ChiChi gasped and looked at him. "That's terrible!"

Kakarott shrugged. "It's the way."

"You don't seem to worried about all of this."

"Why should I be? When I am bonded, I intend to stay that way. There is no honor at all in dying from lunacy."

"Is that your only reason to, honor? What about the fact that you love the person you're with!"

"We saiyans don't really practice the word 'love' a lot. I know I love you, but it's different than loving you like a mate."

ChiChi grew quiet, "I get it." She got up then and went into the house to eat with Kakarott following in confusion at her sudden quietness.

After they made it to the kitchen and sat down, ChiChi decided to speak again.

"I'm sorry that you feel that way."

"What?" Kakarott asked, mouth full of food. But ChiChi would say no more. Soon the food on the table was gone, but as usual, Kakarott was still hungry.

"We saiyans tend to eat a lot. We have huge appetites."

"How much is 'a lot'?" Ox King asked him.

"Only about 7-10 normal human courses. I researched it from the data on my ship."

"WHAT?!" Ok King and ChiChi shouted in unison.

"That's why we hunt all of the time. I can do that now."

"You're gonna have to. You ate all of the food here!" ChiChi exclaimed.

"Alright then. 'I'll be back in a hour." Kakarott flew away.

"Why don't he move in?" Ox King asked.

"'Tousan!"

"It's no secret that you two really like each other. He would want to be closer to you."

"We like it other all right," ChiChi began sadly, "but only as friends. We haven't 'bonded'." Ox King gave her a look. ChiChi sighed. "I'll tell you all about it." 

After she was done, Kakarott still wasn't back.

"I wonder where he is?"

"Right behind you."

ChiChi jumped, as did the Ox King. They both hadn't heard him come in.

"Sorry."

ChiChi turned to look at him and gasped at what she saw. "Is that blood?!"

"Yeah. When saiyans eat, it's usually raw."

ChiChi got up from her seat and walked over to him, wrinkling her nose at the smell. "C'mon Kakarott, we're going upstairs so you can take a shower and clean up!"

***

"...and this is how you work it." ChiChi explained.

ChiChi looked away as Kakarott discarded the towel and climbed in. Soon the sound of running water could be heard.

"This is great! We never had anything like this on Vejiita-sei! We just bathed in lakes, ponds, rivers, wherever we could."

"I'm glad you enjoy it. I'll go get some clothes for you to wear." She left and got some of her father's old clothes. She sighed. "I'm going to have to make a trip down to the laundry room and shrink them, tremendously." She made her way downstairs to do so.

***

Meanwhile, Kakarott was doing some major thinking.

__

I know I love her and everything, but I haven't known her that long and already we have a connection.

 __Sigh. _I'm just going have have to wait until that boy comes back. I just hope it's soon. I really need to figure this out._ He turned the water off the way ChiChi had shown him and got out. Surprised, he saw neatly folded clothes waiting on him. _I didn't hear her come in._ He dried off and got dressed. On his way down to the first level, he bumped into ChiChi on her way up.

"Oh, hi! Have a good shower?"

"I sure did. It gave me a lot of time to think."

"Did it now? Oh, my 'Tousan wants you to move in. He says that you might like to be closer to me. Would you?"

__

I can see she wastes no time in getting to the point.

 __"Sure. You _are_ my friend after all!"

That appariently, was the wrong thing to say because her smile quickly turned into a frown as she pushed passes him on the way to her room.

"What did I do _this_ time?" Kakarott asked,shaking his head. Ox King came out of his room and approached him.

"You will never understand her so don't try."

"Do you know what's wrong?"

Ox King sighed. "It's not my place to tell you. She will, when she'd ready." he became thoughtful. "You know? You might realize it first!" He went back into his room.

__

Just what did he mean by that? Oh, well. 

__Kakarott decided to see to ChiChi so he went to her door and knocked on it.

"Go away." Came a low reply.

"It's me, Kakarott."

"I know. That doesn't make a difference."

"Can I please come in?"

A few minutes later the door opened. Kakarott looked at her in disbelief. Had she been crying?

"Are you okay?"

"Why do you care?"

"I'm your friend."

"There you go with that word again!" She turned and went over to her bed and sat down.

"What word? Friend? What is wrong with me saying that?"

She sighed. "Well, what if I told you that I wanted to be more than friends? What would you say?"

"I would say that it was wonderful. Why? What's the big deal?" he asked, coming over to sit beside her.

"You don't get it."

"Um, ChiChi? Can you please not say that? I'm tired of people always saying that!"

"Gomen. I have to tell you something. It will change the way that you look at me, the way you act around me, and the way you feel about me forever. Are you ready to hear it?"

Kakarott hesitated. "I guess so what is it?"

"I love you more than just friends. In fact, I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

Kakarott froze. She was right, things would indeed be different.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may have noticed that I spend way more time in the other dimension. Well it's becuase I have a world to create you know. You all already know what happens in the regular timeline, but you don't in the other one and that's what I'm trying to do, inform you.

Kakarott didn't know what to say, he hadn't really thought about it before. But now that the situation had arose, he realized that there was something more to his love.

ChiChi mistook his silence as an indication that he did not feel the same way. "I knew I should have kept this to myself! I've ruined our friendship!" and then she began to cry. The sound of it shook Kakarott from his reverie.

"ChiChi! How can you say that? I think it's wonderful!"

ChiChi looked up and said in a shaking voice, "You do?"

"Sure I do! There's just one thing..."

"What is it?"

"Now what are we supposed to do? I'm never had a relationship like this before." he paused. "Now that I think about it, I've never had **any** kind of relationship before, friendship or otherwise."

ChiChi smiled. "Well, we're just going to have to work on that."

***

After ChiChi and Kakarott had made up, they continued their trip to the Capsule Corp. from the day before. Soon they were flying at a face pace and laughing joyfully.

"This is great! I don't know why I never learned this before!" ChiChi shouted over the rushing wind.

"There just wasn't anybody to teach you." Kakarott shouted back.

A few minutes later they had reached their destination. They landed and ChiChi knocked onto the door.

Bulma herself answered. "Oh hello ChiChi. What are you doing here?"

"Hey Bulma-chan. Me and my friend here have a question." she turned to Kakarott. "Kakarott, this is Bulma. Bulma, Kakarott."

"It's nice to meet you." Bulma said politely. Kakarott was silent and remained that way for a good five minutes. Bulma started to get angry and it was apparent in her facial expression.

ChiChi elbowed him. "Just say 'ditto'," she whispered. Kakarott opened his mouth and was startled by a

 _very_ loud explosion. He immediately got into battle stance on her front steps as did ChiChi.

Bulma gaped at them. "What the hell are you two doing?"

"What was that? It could be evil!" ChiChi exclaimed.

Bulma rolled her eyes. "That was just one of my 'Tousan's experiments backfiring again. ChiChi, I thought you would know that!"

"I don't come over enough." ChiChi relaxed her stance, while Kakarott remained in his. "Sorry about that."

"No problem." she turned to Kakarott. "It's okay, the world isn't about be destroyed you know."

"I don't know you good enough to trust your explanation."

"Oh! He speaks!" she turned to ChiChi. "I thought he was mute."

"Kakarott," ChiChi began, "I vouch for her. If she was lying, I promise you can murder her later."

"Hey!" Bulma cried. "I'm going to assume that you were kidding about that last one." Shaking her head she said, "Come on in."

They made their way through the Briefs' front hallway to their living room where they sat. Bulma in a chair and ChiChi and Kakarott on a couch.

"So," Bulma began, "why are you here?"

ChiChi looked at Kakarott. "I'll tell it. You see Bulma, we had a visitor yesterday. A very strange visitor."

"Yes, go on."

"Well," and she went on to explain how the boy had come and told her a lot of weird things. "And so, he said he would be back. We saw him leave in a ship that sported a Capsule Corporation label!"

Bulma was intensly interested. "Really? That must have been a time machine! But the thing is, my 'tousan has the plans for that, but he hasn't finished it yet! When he comes back, bring him here okay? I really want to meet this boy."

ChiChi rose to leave and motioned that Kakarott should do the same. "I will. Thanks for your help."

Kakarott nodded in Bulma's direction. "Yeah. Thank you for the help."

"You're welcome and remember to bring him by!"

***

On the way home, ChiChi decided to ask a question that had been on her mind for a while. "Kakarott? Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, shoot."

"Well, why are you on Chikyuu in the first place?"

Inwardly Kakarott groaned. He had been hoping she wouldn't ask that question, but now that she had, it would be better to tell her and get it over with. He stopped and ChiChi did the same.

"Now it's my turn to tell you something and hope you don't hate me for the results. I've only know you for about a month, but I'm sure I can trust you. I came here originally on a mission from the King of Vejiita-sei, Vegeta-sama. He told me to, uh, exterminatealllifeonthisplanetandgetitreadyforsale." he finished in a rush.

"Huh? What did you say?"

Kakarott sighed. "He told me to exterminate all life on this planet and get it ready for sale." Seeing ChiChi's horrified face he added, "but I'm not going to do that!"

"You better not because you would have a very irate person on your hands. What do you people do there anyway?"

"It's not my people who started that. We are part of Frieza's Planet Trade. We're kind of like intergalactic real estate agents. Clients come to us when their planet has been made unfit for living and we find them another. Most times though, we have to kill off the inhabitants of a potential planet." he shrugged. "Clients pay big bucks for things like that and the faster we get them one, the more we recieve."

"And you don't see anything wrong with that?!" ChiChi asked incredulously.

Kakarott shrugged again. "It's not my place to question it."

They stood there in complete silence, each preoccupied with their own thoughts until it was broken by the second loud explosion of the day.

ChiChi sighed. "Now what?" She looked to Kakarott who was suddenly looking very serious.

"Oh god! He folowed me here!"

"Who did? How can you tell?"

"I can sense ki. It's just something I was born with. It's my brother." That was all he said as he flew off at top speed in the direction the sound came from. Too fast for her to follow. ChiChi was considering going anyway when she got a message. In her head.

__

~Don't come ChiChi it's too dangerous.~

 __It was Kakarott! He continued before she could even form the question in her head. _~This is also a little something I was born with.~_

ChiChi went back home. He'll come back to her. She was sure of it.

* * *

The next day, Gohan made a trip to Bulma's lab. She greeted him at the door.

"Oh hi Gohan. Back again this week?"

"You know it! Have you told Trunks and Vegeta anything?"

"Nope. Only you and I know about it."

"Um Bulma-san, you'll have to make it you, I, and 'Tousan."

"You told Son-kun!"

"Yeah but he agreed that we can't tell 'Kaasan. Anyway, I forgot to tell you what I told them."

"What did you say?" Bulma asked.

"I kind of told them that I was their future son and some of what I knew about saiyans so that he would believe me."

"Oh Gohan you didn't!"

"Don't worry! "Tousan said he'll help me make sure Goten and I still exist. I don't know about Trunks. Vegeta isn't on the planet."

"I would think not at this point in time. How old did ChiChi look to be?"

"Oh I don't know. About 14 or 15 I guess."

"You see? I'm not that much older than her." she narrowed her eyes. "I'm not going to tell you anymore than that. Raditz wouldn't have even come yet and so Vegeta and Nappa currently have no reason to come."

"Bulma-san, do you want me to make sure that the other Bulma gets together with Vegeta?"

"How long are you planning on staying or will I have to add a date programmer into the ship?"

"A date programmer! Now why didn't I think of that?"

She gave a Vegeta-like smirk. "Because you're not the genius. Anyway, I already added that and it's finished."

"WHAT?! And you didn't tell me!"

"It's not a ship anymore. I had to make a sort of interdimensional gateway."

Gohan's jaw dropped. "You mean a portal?"

"You bet! So far everything's fine." she added something else, "I kind of wonder how come Vegeta hasn't found out about this. He usually knows it when I hide something. It's nearly impossible with the bond and all."

As if on cue, a short figure appeared in the doorway.

"Well speak of the devil," Bulma muttered.

"I know all about it and I want to come also. You couldn't stop me if you wanted to."

Bulma sighed in annoyance. "Veggie-chan! You were coming on the final trip anyway! This is just a test run and I got Gohan because he seems to be the only one who understands my work besides 'Tousan." Gohan beamed at the complement. Bulma turned to him. "Gohan, having that ship malfunction was sort of a good thing. I would have never thought of another way and so I would have spent long months trying to improve on that method. We needed it to seat at least five people and a portal has unlimited possibilities." 

She turned and went over to a far corner of the room. I present to you, The Dimension Shifter 2000!" She pulled a sheet.

Vegeta and Gohan both gasped in unison. The thing was spectacular, even unactivated.

"Wow Bulma-san! Just wow!" Gohan couldn't wait to go back.

"And that's not all, you can have unlimited time! I'll give one of you a communicator so you can tell me when you want to come back. Also, I'll bring you back only a minute after you left, but the time in the other dimension will remain normal and unchanged."

"This is great! I hope this works." Gohan said.

"So do I Gohan, so do I."


	6. Chapter 6

Vegeta and Gohan both approached the portal at the same time.

"Wait a second and I'll activate it." Bulma walked to the control panel and pressed a button. The circular space inbetween the frame lit up with what looked like raw energy.

Gohan looked at it warily. "You know, for some reason that doesn't look at all safe." he said somewhat sarcastically.

"Looks are deceiving. It's fine. Go ahead." She looked up. "Oh! I almost forgot! He's the transmitter. Veggie-chan, come get it." Vegeta grumbled and walked over to retrieve it.

"Uh Vegeta, why don't you try it out?" Gohan asked nervously.

"Boy, you are the most powerful of us all, but you're scared of a little flesh wound?! How pitiful." but Vegeta did walk over and stuck his hand through the space.

Gohan could see the grimace on his face as if he fully expected his hand to be burned off but when nothing happened, he relaxed.

"I told you it was safe. Now go and test it. When you come back and everything's still okay, we'll do the official one." Bulma told them.

Vegeta stepped all the way through with Gohan following.

***

The actual walking through the thing was the okay part, the plummeting from 100 feet in the air was not.

"AHHHHHHH!" Gohan screamed, startled. Then he remembered that he could fly. He stopped himself and looked up to see a _very_ amused Vegeta smirking at him. "It's not funny." he muttered.

"That performance was worthy of your father."

"Just forget it. Let's go to the place where I saw them last. It was near my grandfather's place."

They flew off with Gohan leading the way.

***

Kakarott and ChiChi looked up from their daily sparring session.

"I think the boy is back and he's brought someone with him." ChiChi nodded. They both rose into the air where the other two were.

Kakarott could reconize that face anywhere. "Prince Vegeta! Why are you here?"

Vegeta was confused. He looked to Gohan who only shrugged. "Look Kakarott, I don't have a clue what you're talking about." To his surprise, the other did not try to correct him about the name and this was a fact that the prince brought up.

"How come you're not bothering to correct me?"

Now it was Kakarott's turn to be confused. "I'm sorry my prince, but I don't have the vaugest idea what _you_ are talking about."

"Usually when I call you Kakarott, you correct me with you're earth name Goku."

"I still don't know what you're talking about. My name is Kakarott and it's always been."

Vegeta was speechless. "Okay..."

ChiChi turned to Gohan. "So are you really my future son?"

"Yes I am. My name is Gohan. I'm named after my grandfather." That just added more to the confusion.

"Wait a minute. That's not my "Tousan's name. Is it yours Kakarott?"

"Nope. My father's name is Bardock."

"No. Not you're real father Kakarott, but your _adopted_ father. Wait, I'll tell you when we get to the ground because this is going to take a while." They landed and Gohan began his story.

"You came to Chikyuu as a baby. They had sent you here to destroy all of the living things. My grandfather Gohan found you and raised you. He tried his best but you were just too wild. Then one day he was walking through the forest while he had you in his pack, you fell out, bumped you head, and became nice. You've been that way ever since. You're the protector of the planet. Everything was fine for a while after, you married my mother here and I was born soon after. But when I was five, Raditz came and tried to make you become evil again. He kidnapped me to force you to fight him. You joined forces with Piccolo-san and eventually beat him, but you died. Before Raditz did however, Piccolo-san accidentally told him about the Dragonballs and Nappa and Vegeta picked it up on their scouters. They came one year later to get them. In the mean time, Piccolo-san had trained me and you trained with Kaio-sama in the afterlife. When Vegeta and Nappa came, they killed three of your friends, Yamcha, Tien, and Choutzu."

"Those three died? I can't believe it!" ChiChi exclaimed.

"They sure did. Anyway, you seriously hurt Nappa and Vegeta here killed him."

"I sure did. That baka was way too weak. I'll pick up here Gohan. I've heard this story enough. After I killed Nappa, I fought Goku one on one. I hurt him bad, but I had to go Oozaru to do it. Then this fatty Yajirobee cut off my tail. I proceeded to beat the crap out of Goku's best friend Krillin until Gohan had to fight me. Unfortunately I was defeated first by Goku's attack, the Genki Dama, then by Gohan turning Oozaru and squishing me when I cut off his tail." He paused a minute to glare at him. "I escaped with my life back to Frieza's headquarters where I found out that he had went to Namek of their dragonballs for you see, if you kill Piccolo, you kill Kami and he created them."

Gohan picked the story up again. "Bulma-san, Krillin, and I went to Namek also, hoping to resurrect the three who died while 'Tousan healed. We found out that Vegeta was looking too as was Frieza. We eventually got all the dragonballs and was forced to team up with Vegeta to do so. Then the Ginyu Force arrived when Frieza summoned them."

"The Ginyu Force? Frieza was that desperate? Wow!" Kakarott said amazed.

"Anway, Vegeta killed Guldo, but the rest proved too much. We were going to lose. Then my 'Tousan came and beat everyone there. He and Ginyu himself fought, but Ginyu kind of stole his body."

"How did he do that?" ChiChi asked.

"He shot out some beam and they just switched. Well anyway, he eventually ended up in a frog's body when 'Tousan threw the frog into the beam. He still remains that way to this day." Gohan stopped. He was tired of talking so he motioned for Vegeta to resume.

"I found out that those earth creatures had made a wish without me! When I got there though, the Dende kid had used two out of three. Both were used to bring Piccolo back to life and to this dimension."

They went on to explain how Frieza killed off Vegeta and how Goku turned Super Saiyan.

"I, I mean he went Super Saiyan? _He's_ the legendary Super Saiyan? That's amazing!"

Gohan shrugged. "It's really no big deal. Both me and Vegeta can also. As can Vegeta's son and my little brother."

"You're little brother? How come you didn't say we had _two_ children?"

"It just slipped my mind."

"Another thing, I've Frieza killed you, then how come you're right here?" ChiChi asked him.

"The dragonballs. I kind of was wished back by accident. I'm not going into that."

Gohan continued to the incident of Cell and Majin Buu. Kakarott and ChiChi were amazed.

ChiChi spoke up after a lengthy pause in the story. "I almost forgot! Bulma-chan asked me to bring you by when you came back!"

Vegeta's eyes lit up and the mention of Bulma and Kakarott noticed.

"Excuse me for asking my prince, but why are you looking at that the the mere mention of the blue haired female?"

Gohan smiled. "That's another thing. In our dimension, those two are married."

"MARRIED?!" ChiChi and Kakarott exclaimed in unison.

"Are you going to tell her?" ChiChi asked.

"No," Vegeta began softly. "We were able to tell you two because you obviously are already together, but since she hasn't met me yet, I don't know what could happen."

"Okay then. Let's go!" All four take off in the direction of the Capsule Corp.

***

After they were comfortably seated, Bulma asked the question she had been wanting to know ever since her guests had arrived.

"Are you really who you say you are?"

"Scouts honor."

Bulma nodded and leaned back into her chair when Kakarott suddenly remembered the visitor he had previously had.

"How's Raditz doing?"

Gohan and Vegeta listened more intently after he mentioned that.

"He's fine. He still hasn't woken up though."

Kakarott saw how Gohan and Vegeta were staring at him, so he answered their unasked question.

"He arrived here yesterday and by your story, he's early. I guess it's because I was raised on Vejiita-sei and not Chikyuu. Anyway. after I found his pod, he was unconcious so I took him here. Bulma has been attending to him ever since. I'm sort of hoping the same head injury thing will work on him as well."

Bulma looked at each of her guests. "Can someone fill me in?" So Gohan did, with a less detailed version. (he left out the parts about Vegeta and their son)

Suddenly they heard an alarm ringing throughout the house. Bulma stood up. "He's awake."


	7. Chapter 7

When they all arrived in one of the medical rooms, Raditz was already sitting up, confused. Other than the huge bandage on his head, he looked completely alright.

"What am I doing here?" he growled at them with a fierce expression on his face.

"Well Raditz my dear brother, I found you out cold in your pod so I brought you here." Kakarott said as he approached him.

"Well, Kakarott _my_ dear brother, I see that you have _not_ completed your mission since there is still life on this planet."

Bulma's eyes got big and she looked at Kakarott in shock as did Gohan.

"Calm down. I never had any intention of killing off a whole race. I'm not like those bakas on Vejiita-sei. They think I'm weak and that's why they sent me here."

Raditz noticed a figure behind Bulma. "My Prince!" He jumped up and got to his knees before him, bowing low.

"Get up Raditz. I don't have time for this."

Raditz stood. "Well, let me tell you why I'm here. Father and Vegeta-oui thought you couldn't handle it, so they sent me to make sure you could."

"I'm not doing it and I'm not going back. I like it here with Bulma and ChiChi and everyone. You also can't make me, you know why?"

"Why, brat?"

"Because I know about the little incident on Lunar 3. You didn't kill those aliens, they killed themselves. They said that they'd rather be dead on their own account that by your hands."

"You can't get to Father because I would kill you first."

"I wouldn't have to." he gestured to Bulma behind him. "Bulma here is a genius. I haven't a doubt in my mind that she couldn't create a video comunicator that could send signals back to Vejiita-sei."

Raditz gasped. "You're lying!"

"You see all these things around you? Bulma or her father created them. If Bulma couldn't do it, her father could. So I reccomend that you just stop it with the idea that you're going to kill everyone. Also one more thing, you see Vegeta behind me? He's from the future. His powerlevel is about 15-20 times the amount of yours as is Gohan's."

"How can you tell that without a scouter?"

"You don't believe me? Well then use yours and be prepared when it blows up on you. Not all people need a scouter to read ki."

Raditz did as he suggested and was still surprised when it exploded. The last number he got for Vegeta was around 25,000 and he was amazed and terrified."

"I think you would love it back in the future Raditz," Vegeta began, "Over 10 people there have a powerlevel higher than yours. Though when you came to ours..."

Gohan picked up the sentence. "you died and I should know. I was 5. You kidnapped me to get my Tousan to fight you."

"Why would I have anything to do with _your_ father? Unless..."

"You got it. Kakarott, or Goku as he is called in our time, is my father. I also can tell, because I too can sense ki, that he's about 4 times as powerful as you."

Kakarott gave him a look to see if he was just trying to trick Raditz, but Gohan was sincere. Kakarott began to smile. "That's right Raditz, anyone here, with the exception of Bulma and ChiChi--"

"Um Kakarott, ChiChi could too."

"WHAT?!" Raditz and ChiChi shouted at the same time.

"That's right. ChiChi has twice your powerlevel, Raditz. I don't know how. She's never that strong in our time unless you make her mad. Then she's downright scary."

"You got that right. Kakarott in our time is also scared of her." Vegeta put in.

Kakarott rolled his eyes. "Anyway, you see there are many people here stronger than you. We won't hesitate to eliminate a potential problem."

"Wait! Don't do this to me! I don't really want to kill you or anyone else on the planet. I'm just following orders. Are you still going to kill me?"

Vegeta walked up and placed his hand on his forehead. He frowned in concentration, while the others looked at him strangely. After a few minutes, Vegeta removed his hand and opened his eyes.

"He's telling the truth."

"What did you do?" Bulma asked, even Gohan was curious. Then he remembered.

"I know! You read his mind like Tousan did on Namek." Gohan turned to the others. "After Tousan became a Super Saiyan he gained that ability. Does that mean I can do it too?"

"I don't know, but try it sometime." Vegeta replied.

"Hold on. What's this about Super Saiyans?"

"Shall we show the man?" asked Gohan.

"I do believe we should." They both screamed and powered up. In a few seconds they both became super saiyans.

"That's not all. There are more levels than just one." Gohan powered down as did Vegeta. "So far there are three SSJ, USSJ, and the Mystic level. But who's to say that there aren't more out there. We keep encountering stronger enemies, so therefore we had to be stronger to defeat them. Frieza was the first of the strongest we had to face, then Cell and the Androids, and then Buu. I have a feeling the fight isn't over yet, though I wish it was. I really dislike fighting for life or death."

Kakarott still had his eyebrow raised at the previous ki reading and Raditz was inching ever so slightly toward an open window, a wild expression on his face.

"Hold it!" ChiChi walked up to him. "You're not going anywhere!"

Bulma decided to say something after all this time. "You know what? I could give you a capsule house so that you could live near ChiChi and Kakarott. They could keep an eye on you. We'll try it out, but one little disturbance I know they won't hesitate to kill you."

"Uh, that's fine."

Gohan spoke up. "You know what? We really need to get home. We'll be back though, and since it worked out so great, we'll even bring Vegeta's son, my father, and my little brother." He gave a look to Raditz. "All _Super Saiyan_."

Raditz gulped. Vegeta pulled out the comunicator and pressed a button. "Yeah Bulma? We're ready to come home. What? I don't care what Trunks did woman! Just bring us home! Yeah. Where will the portal appear?"

Suddenly he was knocked backwards in surprise. He hit the floor. "Nevermind. You could have warned me you know!" He continued to argue.

"Are they always like that?" ChiChi whispered to Gohan.

"Nope. Sometimes it's worse!"

Vegeta finally straightened everything out and put the communicator away. "Well, let's go brat."

"Goodbye, we'll be back soon. We just have to sneak away so that Kaasan won't notice. I'm sorry ChiChi, but you're _very_ overprotective. Bye!" He stepped back through the portal.

"If I find out that you've been bothering Bulma, I'll send you on a one-way trip to HELL!" Vegeta glared at him one last time and also stepped through the portal.

* * *

After they arrived back in Bulma's lab and you could actually still see everyone else on the other side. Gohan waved one last time as Bulma disconnected the portal.

"So, how was it?" she asked.

"It was great, although Raditz showed up as you saw."

'What?! He didn't try to hurt you two?"

"He couldn't. Everyone was stronger than he was and not just me and Vegeta-san either. Kakarott and ChiChi were as well!"

"You're kidding! That's funny."

Gohan told her how he was trying to cower in the corner. By the time he was finished they both had tears streaming down their faces and were holding their stomaches from laughing so hard.

"WHERE IS HE?!" Gohan jumped at the sound of that voice.

"Kaasan? Oh no!" Gohan tried to hide from her in the shadows. Suddenly the door burst open and ChiChi marched in with Goku and Goten following her.

"Tousan, don't tell me you told her!"

"She was going to cut off my meals! I'm sorry Gohan!"

"Is this it Niichan? Cool!" Trunks decided he was going to show up too.

"Listen Gohan, you WILL NOT be going off to some alternate dimension! You don't know what danger could be there! You will also not take your little brother along!"

"Aw Kaasan! I wanted to go! Trunks is going." Goten began to whine.

"But Kaasan, it's perfectly safe! Bulma-san designed it after all. Can you show her please?"

"Okay." Bulma walked over to the controls and punched in some commands. The portal lit up and you could see on the other side. The thing was that it appeared in the same exact place as before. Bulma, Kakarott, ChiChi, and Raditz looked up, surprised.

"Are you coming back already?" ChiChi asked them.

(From this point until the portal closes, I'll use 2 behind the names of the other dimension people so you won't get confused.)

"No they are not! It is too dangerous. Especially with that monster behind you." ChiChi shouted at them.

"Gohan was right, you are overprotective and scary!" ChiChi2 shouted back.

ChiChi turned to look at Gohan, who was smiling sheepishly.

"How about you come here and see for yourself? You can't judge this world unless you experience it." Bulma2 told her.

ChiChi shook her head and Goku stepped forward. "Aw come on ChiChi! We'll come with you so you won't be hurt." Goten and Gohan shook their heads eagerly.

ChiChi sighed. "All right I'll go. But one sign of trouble you're not going back!"

Gohan and Goten hugged her. "Thanks Kaasan."

"Trunks now you be careful." Bulma said as she hugged him.

"Kaasan, I will." He broke free of her hug and ran ahead with Goten close on his heels. After they all had went through Bulma sighed.

"Vegeta better make sure Trunks is okay, or when he gets back I'll kill him!"


	8. Chapter 8

After everyone had stepped through the portal, there was complete silence until Goten broke it.

"Hey! Why do you two look like my parents?" he asked ChiChi and Kakarott.

"Well," ChiChi began, "Your brother said that we are your parents, the past versions anyway."

The older ChiChi still had that look on her face and when the others saw it, they all involuntarily backed up a few steps. Even Vegeta.

"Look, I don't care _who_ you are, you better not cause any trouble or there will be trouble for **you**."

"Oh Kami, I hope I'm not **that** bitter and sour when I grow up. That's just too much!" ChiChi2 turned to Bulma. "Gotta go Bulma-chan, we'll be back. Come on Raditz."

ChiChi, Kakarott, Raditz, and the rest followed her outside where they all took to the air, well, everyone except the older ChiChi.

"HEY! You can't just leave me here!" she shouted.

"Tousan, that's something I still can't understand. Why does ChiChi have more power than Kaasan?"

"I don't get it either. Maybe it's just a fluke." he returned down to retrieve his ranting wife. "Where are we going ChiChi? The _younger_ ChiChi."

"Back to my house. Tousan sure will be surprised to see you!" They all took off at top speed to ChiChi's place.

***

After everyone arrived at ChiChi's and they had gotten settled... well, as settled as they could ever get seeing as ChiChi1 was shooting Raditz evil looks throughout the whole thing, the Ox King started up a conversation and boy was it interesting!

"So Goku," he began, "What's it like being the strongest in the universe?"

Goku started to open his mouth and Vegeta cut in. "He's not the strongest, I am!"

Goku put a hand by his mouth and leaned in to Ox King to whisper something, "He's a little jealous..."

"Jealous!" Vegeta shouted, having heard perfectly. "I am not! I should have been the Legendary Super Saiyan! It should not have gone to you! I'm royalty!"

"Tousan! Calm down!" Trunks cried.

"That's another thing Vegeta-oui, why does your brat have _purple_ hair?" Raditz asked, disgusted.

"It's because of his mother's irregular human hair gene that's why! Although I wonder why it's purple instead of blue..."

"Leave my hair color alone! It's fine." Trunks protested.

"Um Raditz, who are you related to? You look kind of like someone I know..." Goten asked, curious.

"Goten, that's Tousan's older brother." Gohan told him.

"Really? Wow!"

"Uncle Raditz are you going to stay this quiet and not cause any trouble?" Gohan asked him.

"It depends on how you people treat me."

"I don't think we will have any problem. He's so much weaker than everyone else here that he can't really do much harm." Goku said cheerfully.

Kakarott looked at him strangely. "Do you always act this way?"

"What way?"

"All cheerful and nice!"

"Yes, he does." Everyone present nodded except Ox King, ChiChi, Radtiz, and Kakarott.

Now it was Vegeta's turn to whisper. "He's also quite slow, if you know what I mean. We think the fall as a child did it to him." he told Kakarott.

"Then I'm glad I didn't come here as a baby!"

"It's a good thing you left when you did." Goku felt a little weird talking to himself. "Vejiita-sei's due to blow up in a year, I think."

"WHAT?!" Kakarott and Raditz shouted.

"You didn't know?" Goku asked innocently.

"Why would we know? What happened?" Raditz asked.

"It was that Frieza. I'll tell you my version, though it might happen differently to you." He told them all about Frieza blowing up the planet and even about how Goku killed him. "I would have done it myself, but I didn't have the time."

"But Vegeta-san, weren't you dead?" Goten started to ask, but Gohan and Trunks covered his mouth. They knew the story as well and Gohan was present at the time.

Vegeta realized something. If Raditz and Goku never died, then the other Vegeta and Nappa were never notified of the dragonballs so they had no reason to come to Chikyuu. That also meant that Bulma may never get with Vegeta, but still be with Yamcha. That just made him mad.

Vegeta jumped up. "I'll kill Yamcha before he takes my Bulma!" Everyone stopped talking at once and looked at him.

"Did I say that out loud?" Then he shook his head, ran out of the front door and flew in the general direction of Yamcha's ki.

Gohan, Goku, Goten, and Trunks stood at the same time.

"He's going to kill someone. Trunks, you and Goten go to Bulma for some tranquilizer darts while me and Tousan try to stop him. We can't let him break his vow." Gohan said assigning duties. They all nodded and started their tasks.

***

(Trunks and Goten)

The two children flew as fast as they could to the Capsule Corp., they didn't bother knocking on the door, the went to an open window and climbed right on in.

"Bulma! Bulma! We need help, quick!" They ran around shouting. They looked everywhere and naturally she was in the last place they looked, the living room.

She stood, looking at them in shock. "What? What?"

"It's my Tousan! He's gone crazy! He's going to kill Yamcha!" Trunks shouted.

"We need, uh, what were they called again?" Goten asked.

"Tranquilizer darts." Trunks told him patiently. "Pronto!"

"Why is he doing it? For no reason?" Bulma asked them. Oh there was a _very_ good reason why he was doing it, but the children were drilled by Gohan not to say anything about it.

"Uh, we can't say."

Trunks smacked his friend in the back of the head. "Goten!"

"It's not important, let's go!" Bulma had already ran to the lab for the supplies and was walking outside. "Just let me get a capsule car..." Before she could react Trunks picked her up by the waist and flew off, Goten not far behind.

***

(Gohan and Goku)

"We have to hurry or Yamcha's done for!" Gohan shouted. _We also have to find some way to get Vegeta here and with Bulma._ But he didn't say that outloud.

Goku was the one who spotted him first. Yamcha was residing in his old place in the desert and Vegeta was currently in the process of breaking down his front door.

"Vegeta! Get a hold of yourself!" Goku shouted, trying to restrain him. As he was doing so, Yamcha came to the window.

"What is going on here? Who are you two?"

Trunks and Goten showed up with Bulma.

"VEGETA! STOP! Yamcha didn't do a thing to you!" she shouted.

"You know this maniac?" Yamcha asked her.

"Vegeta, STOP!" Something in Gohan's voice made him halt. "You can not affect what goes on here. You have no control over it. If she ends up with Yamcha, fine. You still have your version back in our dimension."

"But Yamcha does not deserve a wonderful person as she. He's nothing but a cheating, lying, BASTARD!" He broke free from Goku's restraint and lauched at Yamcha who jumped back surprised.

"What is going on here and I want the truth!" Bulma demanded. Gohan sighed. 

"I guess I have to tell you why." He cleared his throat. "This is the reason why he's so protective of you; In our dimension something comes to pass that has about a 2% chance of happening here. He marries you. He," he points at Trunks, "is the result of your joining. Vegeta just realized that you may not ever be with him in this time. The Yamcha in our time has been exposed and he is exactly as Vegeta says, a cheating, lying, bastard. You break up with him for about the 20th and last time and start a relationship with Vegeta. You are happy with him because of the saiyan bond." He raised his hand to stop her question about the latter. "I can't explain it because I don't think it has ever happened to me. We just have to hope he stays alive."

"If he's as you say, why should we?"

"No one, I mean, NO ONE deserves to die by Vegetas hands. If you get my meaning."

Bulma shuddered and walked over to Vegeta, who was currently preoccupied and beating the life from Yamcha's body, though he was already unconcious.

__

I hope this works...

 __, Bulma thought. "Veggie-chan..."

Vegeta stopped immediately, and looked up at her. Bulma could swear that he had tears in his eyes.

"I have something for you..." She hid the dart behind her back and handed it to Trunks, who snuck around behind Vegeta. Bulma held out her arms to hug him and Trunks pulled the trigger on the dart gun...

The dart made a whooshing sound and got stuck in Vegeta's rear-end. His eyes widened in surprise as he slowly slumped to the ground. Before he hit though, he was already asleep, sawing wood like an army of lumber jacks.

"I can't believe that worked!" Bulma said amazed. "Oh well, Goku..."

Goku walked over and picked him up, flying in the direction of the Ox King's house.


	9. Chapter 9

The trip back to Ox King's place was very boring. Nobody spoke in fear of waking the prince. Oh sure, Goku could have teleported. But he never took so many people at once and that time wasn't right to try.

After they returned (and after they had Vegeta in a bed and tied down), they continued the conversation.

"So, are you saying that this boy, Trunks, is mine? Really?"

"Yep. There are two versions though." Goku told Bulma.

"What?"

"Well, there is Mirai Trunks from the future timeline that does not come to pass in our timeline because he came back and told us about the androids in time and there is this Trunks. I don't know if it will happen here or not."

"You see, there is a slight problem." Gohan began. "I was born about a year from this date, but it might not happen here. If it doesn't happen, a lot of things are going to change."

"Yeah," Goten started, "for one, niichan won't kill Cell so you all might die. He might not be strong enough _if_ he's even born. There's a little problem with me being born too. Will I?"

"I don't know Goten-chan, I don't know." the younger ChiChi replied.

"This is a lot of pressure, don't you think?" Kakarott said. "All this is due to happen, but it doesn't have to go _exactly_ like it went in your world. I mean, #1. Raditz is here early."

"But," Gohan argued, "he only came because Vejiita-sei still exists in this dimension. Now that I think about it, in ours, at this time, the planet would still be around also. I wonder why our Radtiz waited that long."

"Anyway, Kakarott, you are _way_ stronger than I was at this time. I had just married ChiChi."

"Your also not as clueless as Goku was. I think it was the blow to the head too. ChiChi, you're also a lot stronger than I am at any time. I can fight, but I don't have enough ki to fly."

"Fine, fine. We'll take things as they come. Okay I admit I like ChiChi."

Everybody present (except ChiChi of course) raised their eyebrows.

Kakarott blushed. "Fine, I _love_ ChiChi, but I'm not ready to, uh, to what do you humans call it again?"

"Marriage Kakarott." Gohan put in.

"I'm not ready for marriage."

"You don't have to be." Trunks said. "My Kaasan and Tousan weren't married when I was born. Actually, I think I was more of an accident."

"Don't think that way Trunks, you weren't." Gohan told him.

"You say it, my Kaasan says it, my grandparents say it, but Tousan doesn't believe it."

Suddenly there was a _loud_ yell coming from upstairs.

"The beast is awake." Gohan muttered.

Bulma jumped up. "I think I should be the one to handle him, guys. You all just keep on doing what you already were." She ran upstairs to, hopefully, calm Vegeta down.

***

Upon arrving at the room he was in, Vegeta took one look at her and started shouting obscenities.

"WOMAN! WHAT IN _HELL_ POSSESSED YOU TO STICK THAT NEEDLE IN ME?!"

"For one, it wasn't me who actually stuck you, it was Trunks." At the exact same moment she said that the vein on his forehead bulged a little more. _I hope Trunks will be okay!_ "Anyway, you were acting like a rabid dog. I swear you were foaming at the mouth."

"That weakling is scum of the lowest kind. He shouldn't be anywhere near you."

"Vegeta, finding out that Yamcha is pitiful is something I need to discover on my own. Anyway, I knew that." She sat down on the edge of the bed. "Calm down, you probably tramitized poor Yamcha for life!" She gasped. "That reminds me! I have to get Goku to get him to a hospital!" She ran out of the room, down the hall, and to the living room. She came back about 10 minutes later. "There now, it's all taken care of."

"This is _not_ over." He got up, or at least tried to. "Untie me, NOW!"

"Yes Prince Vegeta! Your rather grumpy after your unsuspected nap, aren't you?" But she pulls out a knife and starts to cut away at his bonds. "Damn. Gohan sure can tie some good knots." She finally completes her job and Vegeta stands.

"TRUNKS!"

"Uh, oh!" Bulma runs out the door ahead of him, and it's a war to see who would be first to the staircase. Bulma makes it first, but Vegeta pushes her out of the way. She recovers and slides down the banister. Vegeta is close on her heels.

"Trunks, run away now!" Bulma yells panting.

"Oh Kami!" Trunks jumps up quick and starts to run. Goku stands and grabs his arm, locks on to a random familiar ki, and they disappear. Vegeta, who at the time was diving for his son, hits thin air and falls flat on his face. Everyone there is trying to hold in their laughter, but Bulma laughs quite loudly.

"HAHAHAHA! Vegeta, you should be a comedian!" She stops as soon as she sees the look on his face. He's angrier than ever and soon as he sensed Goku's ki, he jumped up. Not bothering to open the door he makes a new one and takes to the air at break-neck speed.

"Oh no! I endangered Trunks' life!" Bulma sat down wearily on the couch.

"Bulma-chan, what did you do?" the younger ChiChi asked.

Bulma explained everything, from what she told Vegeta to the race. They looked at her in shock.

"B-chan! If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to get with the prince!" ChiChi said.

Bulma blushed. "Uh, I'm not. He's just soooo cute!" She gasped as she saw everyone look at her knowingly. "Did I say that outloud?"

The older ChiChi spoke up. "Bulma is _not_ going to like this at all! She can be pretty psycho when she wants to."

"More psycho than you?" Goten asked under his breath, but ChiChi heard him anyway and turned into Demon Woman. Everyone present braced themselves.

"Oh, you're in for it now." Gohan whispered.

"GOTEN! HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT YOUR MOTHER THIS WAY! I KNOW I'VE RAISED YOU BETTER THAN THAT! I--" Luckily Gohan interrupted her.

"Kaasan, he's sorry. Aren't you Goten?"

"Yes Niichan." Goten wanted more than anything to end this. "I'm sorry I called you psycho and I'll never do it again."

ChiChi's mood changed so fast they didn't know what hit them. She smiled. "That's my little Goten. There's the boy I raised." she sighed. "Trunks is influencing you too much. I think you should stay away from him."

Goten sighed. Not this again! "Kaasan, he's my best friend! I can't just stay away from him!"

"He has a point, Kaasan." Gohan told her calmly.

"I guess you're right." Gohan gasped. This was something new. "I think I should learn to be a little more tolerant."

Ox King, Bulma and Kakarott watched this exchange with some amusement.While ChiChi secretly hoped that she wouldn't become that way later on in life. Suddenly Goku came back, his clothes all ripped and torn, but that trademark smile was still on his face.

"Well," he began, "that problem's all taken care of. I think I hid Trunks pretty good." he rubbed his hands together eagerly. "What's for dinner?"

Everyone sweatdropped. Goku will always be the same.


	10. Chapter 10

A little while after the large meal was consumed, Goku remembered that he had yet to go get Trunks. So he quickly excused himself from the table and locked onto the boys ki. A few seconds later, he reappeared in front of the Kame house on Master Roshi's island.

"Trunks! Time to go! I think your father has calmed down by now!"

Krillin came out of the house with a curious look on his face, but just sighed when he saw Goku.

"He's out back with Roshi." was all he said before going back inside. Goku had told him all about who he was.

Goku went on back only to be shocked by the sight of Trunks and Roshi side-by-side looking at porno.

"Master Roshi!" Goku gasped. "Why are you messing with Trunks' mind like that?" _I should have know it was a mistake to leave him here!_

"What? A little nudity never hurt anyone!"

"The boy is 8."

"I knew far more at his age!"

Goku rolled his eyes and took the magazine from Trunks' wide eyes. "See! He's traumatized!"

Trunks looked up at him solemnly and said in an awe filled voice, "I never knew someone could bend so many ways!"

Roshi covered his mouth with his hand and started to laugh silently. Goku just sighed heavily. Bulma was going to kill him when they got back.

***

"We're back!" Goku announced cheerfully as he and Trunks walked through the front door. The latter was scanning the room nervously for a sign of an irate Vegeta. There was none. He sighed in relief.

Trunks shut the door and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw Vegeta standing behind it.

"Hello son," Vegeta said softly. Trunks narrowed his eyes and got into a defensive stance. An angry Vegeta was dangerous, a quiet Vegeta was just downright deadly.

"Why are you so defensive? I just wanted to say I was sorry."

That _really_ caught him off guard. Sorry? Such a word was _not_ in Vegeta's vocabulary.

"What are you up to?" Trunks said a little shakily.

"Nothing, nothing at all." He stepped forward and with each step, Trunks took a huge one back. Then he was surprised when Vegeta lunged at him, he put up his hands to guard his face when he felt Vegeta's arms wrap arouns him. Trunks froze, afraid for his life.

"I just wanted to hug you."

Trunks relaxed slightly, but that was just enough for Vegeta to get him. He pulled a hypodermic needle -- as soon as Goku saw it, he took off -- and plunged it into his back.

"Wha?" Trunks said weekly as he felt the world growing faint.

"Just a little payback," Vegeta hissed into his ear as Trunks' world faded to black. Vegeta picked him up and put him on the couch.

Goku reappeared in the doorway. "Vegeta," he began in a scolding tone, "that wasn't at all nice."

"And? It'll wear off soon." Vegeta walked to the staircase smirking, looking like he just had the time of his life. "That'll teach him to let his guard down."

Goku shook his head. Vegeta sure did have weird ways of teaching lessons.

***

Trunks woke the next day feeling like he had gotten trampled by the Eternal Dragon. His head felt just like the time when he decided to sample his Tousans secret stash of Jack Daniels. Trunks yawned and tried to stretch, but all he felt was pain. He tried to clear his fuzzy head and he remembered what had happened.

"I am going to kill him!" he powered up to Super Saiyan and stomped downstairs. He passed Goten on the way down.

"Look! It's sleepin' beauty!" Goten then saw the look on his face and pointed. "He's down there."

Trunks nodded briefly and made his way to the kitchen where his Tousan, Raditz, Kakarott, Gohan, and Goku were stuffing their faces while both ChiChi's looked on.

"You. Me. Outside. Now." Trunks growled at him while he jerked his thumb at the back door.

Vegeta looked up from his full plate and smirked. "As you wish brat." Vegeta stood and proceeded to lead the way.

"You gotta go far away from the house so that ki blasts won't be a problem!" Goku yelled as he followed them excitedly. All those who could fly quickly followed suit.

"What about me?!" the older ChiChi yelled.

"It'll be safer here!" Goku yelled to her.

"You're staying too," Kakarott said to the younger one.

"Aw come on! Please let me go," ChiChi gave him what she hoped was an irresistable expression. It apparently was for Kakarott sighed and nodded.

The younger ChiChi turned around to look at the other. "I won't be so bad. I'll tell you who wins, okay?"

ChiChi nodded though she already knew the victor.

***

{authors note (if you actually thought I'd get through a story without one, you don't know me very well): I'm going to try the fight thing again, so don't laugh at it!}

Trunks and Vegeta stopped about a 10 minute flight away from ChiChi's house. They stood on the ground facing each other as the spectators settled in to watch the fight. Oh, they knew it was going to be brief (all except ChiChi), but they hoped anyway.

Goku stepped between them. "We need some rules. This is not a fight to the death, but that doesn't mean to not give it your all. Anything goes and you have an hour to knock each other senseless." Goku nodded grimly. "Let the match begin." As soon as he stepped away, Trunks launched himself at his father and began the arduous task of trying to break through his defense. He feinted to the left and the right and surprised Vegeta by going ducking and going between his legs and kicking him from behind, knocking him down.

He didn't wait for Vegeta to recover, however, he launched a series of ki blasts at him, each more powerful than the last. Anger fuels great battles.

Trunks stopped, not a scratch on him, not even winded and glared at his fathers prone form. "Are you going to give up? Or do I have to beat on you some more?"

Vegeta struggled to his feet, a little tired but that was all and put on his best smirk. "Not on your life, brat. Not on your life. I will not stop until I can not move any longer or until you kill me and I know neither will happen!" He powered up quickly, making small stones levitate into the air and focused his energy into his palm. "YOU WILL NEVER WIN!!" Vegeta let loose a powerful bright yellow, beam that almost hurt to look at. Instead of running, Trunks tried to block it which ended up with him being thrown back about one hundred feet and panting. He moved into SSJ2 and waited.

Vegeta, who had already moved into level one, now shifted into 2 as well.

After Trunks had gotten the best of him, Vegeta's defense was back in place and better than ever. It took all of Trunks' strength just to block him. He really didn't have time to worry about attcking as well.

"Do you give?" Vegeta asked about 9 minutes later.

"NO! I WON'T EVER GIVE UP!!" he sped at him again hoping to catch him off guard. "HA!" he threw a semi-strong blast directly at Vegeta's face. As the latter brought his hands up to block it he left his mid-section defenseless. Trunks took complete advantage of this and continued to beat on him until he knocked him out.

"YEAH! I AM THE WINNER! I AM THE BEST! I AM--"

"Trunks!" Goten shook him. "Look!"

Trunks then saw how much damage he did. Vegeta had bruises and burns covering most of his body. He also had a *very* nasty gash in his leg from colliding with a mountain.

"What have I done?" Trunks asked himself in awe. He had never even came to close to beating his father before.

"That sure was different." Goku walked over to the shorter saiyan and lifted him into his arms. "I'll teleport back and give him a senzu bean. Trunks, I think you better head back home. If he was mad before, he's enraged now!"

"Okay Goku. Are you coming Goten?"

"Yeah. I guess I will. See you later ChiChi, Tousan, Uncle Raditz, Kakarott, Niichan."

Trunks got the communicator from Gohan and turned it on. "Kaasan?"

"Yes Trunks?" Bulma's voice came out rather static filled.

"Me 'an Goten are coming back."

"Without the others? Why-- You made your father mad." It wasn't a question, more a dry statement.

"Well yeah..."

"You can come hideout at home then. I'll open up a portal by the Capsule Corp. See you at home."

"Please tell us when he calms down because we really want to come back!"

"We will." Gohan said.

"Saiyans honor?" Goten asked.

"Saiyans honor."

"Okay! Let's go Trunks!" the two boys flew off.

"Well let's get him home and tied up. He's sure to be grumpy when he wakes up."

"Oh? How will you tell?" Gohan asked. "That's nothing new."

They went towards ChiChi's house soon after.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I understand that Vegeta's ki level would be 18,000 at the time of the Saiyan Saga (based on the figures at planetnamek.com) but since this is an alternate universe, I've decided that he could be weak.

After Goku arrived at ChiChi's house and laid Vegeta down on a bed, he went downstairs to discuss how Trunks beat Vegeta.

"That has never ever happened before! Up to now, only Tousan could defeat him." Gohan was telling Raditz, Kakarott, and the two ChiChi's.

Goku took a seat at the table and sighed. "I really don't want to have to deal with him when he wakes up." he turned to the younger ChiChi. "Can Bulma come up with something that makes him calmer or nicer or something?"

"I'm sure she can."

"I'll go over there now."

"Hey Goku! Let me come too. It's boring not being able to fight or anything."

"Sure ChiChi. Grab my arm." he put two fingers to his head and dissapeared.

They all suddenly heard a loud yell from upstairs.

"Oh joy! The prince is awake," the younger ChiChi said sarcastically. "I'll go and check on him." She went upstairs and they could hear her trying to calm him down.

Then Raditz's scouter started to beep. "Nani? I wonder who it is..." He pushed the buttton on the side.

"RADITZ!" Roared a familiar voice.

"Ve-Ve-Vegeta-ouji!"

Gohan and Kakarott shouted in unison. "NANI?!"

Raiditz shushed them. "Uh, why are you contacting me?"

"Why did you leave for Chikyuu without notifying anyone?! When I get there, you're going on a ONE WAY TRIP TO HELL!"

"Calm down! I had to make sure that my little brother didn't mess things up."

Vegeta came running down the stairs and skidded to a stop in the kitchen. ChiChi was right behind him. "Where is my brat?!"

"He went home with Goten. He knew you would try to kill him." Gohan told him calmly.

"Nani? Me? Kill my son?" Vegeta asked innocently. "Why would I do that? I'm proud of him! He's stronger than I thought he was."

Kakarott, ChiChi, Gohan, and Raditz all sweatdropped. Raditz was now nodding to his scouter. 

"How close are you?" he asked woriedly, switching his gaze from the older Vegeta to the duo sitting at the table.

"You're in luck, we're currently entering the atmosphere as we speak."

"We?"

"Nappa and I. Be prepared." Vegeta disconected the transmission.

"This is bad, really bad!" Raditz muttered.

"What?" Vegeta asked.

"Um, it seems that I'm in trouble with the royalty of Vegeta-sei. Vegeta-ouji and Nappa are entering the atmosphere right now."

ChiChi paled. "So what you're saying is that another Vegeta is on his way?" Raditz nodded. "I can't handle this one!" Vegeta glared at her.

"Don't worry, ChiChi. We should be able to take him if he causes trouble." Gohan glanced at Vegeta. "And knowing this one, he will."

"I resent that."

"Gomen, but you are who you are. And your temper is well known throughout Satan City."

"I have a question about that. Where is Satan City?"

Gohan blinked. "Oh. Forgot to tell you that. Well you see, it was formerly known as Western Capital before the Cell Games. Satan-san, my best-friends' father, had gotten the credit of defeating Cell..." Gohan paused.

"But he didn't really. I can see it in your eyes. Who did?"

"I did. I should have done it earlier, when Tousan told me to. I was only nine years old! Then Cell started to self-destruct and Tousan teleported him from the planet. After he had died and Cell came back unharmed I got angry, powered up to Super Saiyan level two, and killed him."

"At least he's back now."

"Yeah. Now Goten has a father."

"Uh, hello?" Vegeta waved a hand in front of their faces. "We have more important things to worry about! Things that are happening in the present and not have already happened in the past!"

"You're right!" Gohan stood.

"Can I come? Please?"

"I don't think so." Kakarott said seriously.

"You might can..." Gohan turned to Raditz. "How high was Vegeta and Nappa's ki the last time you checked?"

"I dunno. Nappa's was under 2000 and Vegeta's was just under three."

Gohan sighed. "Then that solves it."

"Nani?" Raditz asked.

"What the brat means is that her," he jerked a thumb in ChiChi's direction, "ki is well over 4000. She could take them, no problem."

"Now I've heard everything..." Raditz muttered. But he checked anyway and saw that they were indeed correct.

Gohan went to the phone to call his father. "You guys go ahead. I'll catch up."

***

They tracked the two evil saiyans' ki to their landing site and got there just as they touched down. The small group peered over the edge of one of the craters as the hatch to the pod opened.

"RADITZ!" An angry Vegeta yelled from his ship. "I know you're up there! The scouter is picking you up."

Raditz levitated from the ground and floated to his prince. "Vegeta-ouji, I have everything under control. You really don't need to be here!"

"Where is that brother of yours?" Vegeta asked him, looking up to the top of the hole.

"Here I am," Kakarott replied, floating down to join them. The other Vegeta just stood, looking down, faintly amused. Nappa came over and the four of them began to argue.

Then Goku decided to teleport in. But for some reason, he had picked the wrong Vegeta to teleport to. All four saiyans got into battle stance when he had appeared seemingly from thin air and Vegeta was already powering up.

"KAKAROTT NO BAKA! I'm up here!" The older Vegeta yelled at him.

Both Kakarotts, er one Kakarott and one Goku, looked at him. One grinned in response while the other glared.

"My bad! You two were so close together that I kind of got confused!" Goku teleported again, this time to the right one. "You all can continue your conversation now!"

Two of the four in the crater just kept looking from the spot in front of Vegeta-oui to the spot in front of the other Vegeta-ouji. This lasted a couple of minutes until finally the younger Vegeta spoke up.

"What the hell?!"

"Long story. It's best that you don't ask." Kakarott told him.


	12. Chapter 12

"Why hasn't the portal opened yet?" Trunks asked impatiently, looking over his shoulder every few minutes as if Vegeta was hunting him down.

"I dunno. Maybe Bulma's having a problem,"

The younger Bulma snorted. "She's me and I'm too much of a genius to screw up!" Typical Bulma attitude.

"Oi!" Goku called as he entered the medical room. He had sensed the others earlier and had left before he could get something for Vegeta.

"Tousan what are you doing back here?"

"Why are you two still here? Why hasn't the portal opened yet?" Goku questioned them.

"We don't know."

"They've been here for about 20 minutes now."

A beeping noise errupted from some device in the room.

"What in the world is that?"

Trunks frowned in confusion then he raised the communicator from where it was stuck into his belt.

"Kaasan, what is it?"

"Trunks, we may have a problem here!" her voice said weakly.

Goku took the device from the shocked boy. "What is it Bulma?"

"I did a scan on the dimension just a few minutes ago. What I saw was very disturbing to say the least..."

"Go on."

"Well, it seems as if our dimension and theirs are trying to destroy one another you see."

There was a round of shocked noises. "Why? Do you know?"

"I'll have to look into it further, but you need to gather everyone up and get back here and quick. Just a safety percaution you see."

"I understand." He turned to the kids and ChiChi. "You three go back now and I'll go to the others." Goten and Trunks began to protest but then saw that it was useless.

"Alright," Trunks scowled. He practically snatched the communicator from Goku's hand and growled into it. "Kaasan, open the portal."

The space before them began to glow in an eerie green light. Trunks was just about to walk right through it when both Goku and Goten stopped him.

"Wait! Look, it's different than before." Goten said, amazed.

It was true. Instead of the transparent look that enabled them to see into the other dimension, it was opaque. There were a myriad of colors swirling in the opening as well as thick, rope looking tentacle things (think in terms of the corrupt portals in Reboot) reaching out as to grab someone and drag them into the dark oblivion that they called home. (Was that a good enough description? I hope so.)

Trunks stopped and gazed into it. His eyes widened and he began to back away. "What the hell...?" He fumbled for the communicator and shakily put it up to his ear. "Kaasan, what is going on?"

All he got was a seeming endless stream of cursing. After a while, Bulma calmed down and started to explain.

"I don't think that I can open it from this side. The Bulma there is going to have to create a portal generator. I can give her all of the instructions.... Shit!" Then there was a sound like she was smacking her forehead.

Goku took it from him. "What? What's wrong?"

"Most of the materials that this is made of came from outerspace!"

'NANI?!"

"Hai. You remember that excursion that I sent someone on, don't you? Well, he had found a metal that was almost perfect in every way. There were hardly no flaws in it's structure or anything. It also did not conflict was the sensitive electromagnetic waves --like some metal does-- that were used to create the portal in the first place."

Goku nodded like he understod her technical explanation. "Well, we can just go and get more."

"Iie. You can't! For one, the spaceship that we used doesn't exist yet and it won't be for another," she paused to recall, "20 or so years! Two, the metal came from an asteroid that had made it from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and because there is no way to identify a single one from 10,000 or more, it's next to impossible to find."

"Well, can't we just get it from somewhere else?" It was ChiChi's turn to speak.

There was a pause. "We might. But I have no idea where."

"My father or I can build something to track the metal. Can you have her give me the atomic number and I'll see what I can do."

Goku passed the number on to her (since I can't remember the periodic table of elements from 8th grade (nor did I ever understand it), you can use your own imaginary number) and shut of the communicator.

"Well, that's that."

"Can't Bulma-san give the other Bulma the plans for the ship?" Goten asked. "Since she used it to get the new metal, it must be made of the usual stuff that you can already get."

"Yeah. Once Bulma can track it down, we can already have the ship made to go!" Trunks said excitedly.

"Trunks, you and Goten stay here while I go and tell everyone..." Goku started.

"Iie! Goten and I will go. You can discuss the plan with Bulma since you're practically the leader and everything."

Goku scratched his head in confusion. No one _ever_ told him to stay and come up with a plan before. But being Goku, he didn't notice the obvious that something was definitely wrong with that situation.

Before ChiChi could open her mouth, the two kids were gone.

***

"Vegeta-san! Niichan! We have a problem!" The two boys rushed into ChiChi's kitchen where the two Vegeta's, Raditz, Nappa, Gohan and the rest were sitting.

"Who are you two?" the younger Vegeta asked, sneering.

"The Kakarott look-alike is my little brother," Gohan replied while doing a crossword puzzle. "The purple haired one is Vegeta's son."

"Please tell me that you're lying!" Vegeta gasped.

Trunks' mouth opened and he looked at his father accusingly. "Is this what you thought when I was born?"

The older Vegeta started to stutter. "Uh, n-no. Different circumstances make me say this..."

Gohan yawned and nodded his head. "Hai. That's exactly what he said."

"Niichan, why are you telling on everyone today?" Goten asked.

His brother shrugged. "There isn't much else to do. By the way, can anyone give me a six letter word for 'extreme anger or irrationality'?"

" 'Vegeta'," Everyone said in unison.

"What?" They both said. "How dare you! I'm the Prince of the Saiyans!"

"That will work as well as 'furore'."

"Is that even a word?" ChiChi asked.

"Hai. It's italian for 'fury'."

"Only you could come up with something like that. Does that count?" Goten said and Gohan shrugged.

"We completely forgot why we came!" Trunks suddenly exclaimed. "Look Gohan, we have to go back quick because the two dimensions are conflicting with each other..."

Gohan jumped up. "Well let's go!"

The two demi-sayians shook their heads sadly. "Iie. We can't. The portal is acting screwy," Goten explained.

"And Kaasan can't open it from her side. We have to open it from this one."

Gohan began to pace. "We'll just build something from this side...."

Again the hybrids shook their heads.

"They metal we need is from an asteroid that hasn't passed this way yet. We would have to get it from another place and the space ship technology in this time is sort of.... And no offense!" Trunks added quickly. "It's just..."

"Crappy," Goten supplied.

"Hai."

"What we need we can't get and to find more we need a machine that doesn't exist yet!" Gohan shouted, frustrated.

"That's about it. But like Goten said before, the metal for the ship _does_ exist. Kaasan's telling Bulma how to make it as we speak."

"Good. That's great."

"I wonder how much time you have before everyone is destroyed," ChiChi said shakily.

Everyone grew sad. They didn't know and boy they wished that they did.


	13. Chapter 13

The next day everyone gathered at the Capsule Corp. The younger Bulma had hooked up the communicator to some kind of monitor so now the older Bulma could been seen as well as heard. Everyone was in various states of lounging in the lab. Goten and Trunks were slumped on a couch next to the computer terminal, Gohan was floating in the air having picked the habit up from Piccolo, both Vegetas were leaning against a wall in the shadows in similar stances, the younger ChiChi was sitting in a chair beside Bulma while the other was next to Goku, and Raditz and Nappa were just standing around looking lost.

"Are you sure that you have the correct engine in the ship? It won't get enough boost to clear the atmosphere if the thrusters aren't--"

"BULMA!" The group exclaimed in unison. She had been nitpicking the other Bulma's work ever since she had began.

"Gomen."

Bulma stood from the terminal and wiped some sweat from her forehead. "TOUSAN!" she shouted.

Dr. Briefs stuck his head around the corner. "Yes?"

"Are you finished yet? I transmitted all the stuff that you wanted."

"Sure Bulma. It'll just be a few more hours..."

"HOURS!" she raged. "We don't _have_ hours!"

Dr. Briefs sighed as he walked away. "I've got to do something about that girl's temper."

The older Bulma rolled her eyes and looked down when she discovered that she was getting a print out. "Uh guys...."

"Hai Kaasan?" Trunks looked up at her.

"You know how I said that I didn't know how long you had until the realities eliminate each other?"

They all nodded.

"Well, I know now." She hesitated.

"Spit it out woman!" The older Vegeta roared.

"Veggiec-chan SHUT UP!"

"Veggie-chan?!" Nappa said while raising an eyebrow. He looked at Kakarott and they both cracked up.

"QUIET!" Bulma shouted. "Thank you. Ahem." She cleared her throat. "Based on the latest figures, you have exactly 5 months, 3 days, and 9.5 hours."

"5 months," 'Veggie-chan' began slowly but his voice rose with each word, "3 days, AND 9.5 HOURS!!! Do you actually think that we can stop it in time?!"

"Don't yell at me! I'm not the one who came up with this stuff! Blame Jouten if you really need someone to place the blame on!"

"We're gonna die!" Trunks moaned. "No more girls! No more pranks! No more beating Goten in sparring..."

"HEY!" Goten exclaimed.

"We just have to think positive, that's all." the younger Bulma said. "TOUSAN! We need that ship RIGHT NOW!!"

"I'll do all that I can to help but I don't know if it'll be much."

"You've done your part Bulma-san. You gave us the metal, the blueprints, and the actual time remaining. It was more than enough." Gohan said as he looked around and sighed. "Boy, I sure am going to miss existence."

Trunks started to wail and he grabbed Goten in his grief. "It's been nice knowing you!"

Goten picked up on it and hugged Trunks back. "It would have been fun to grow up..."

"Will you three brats SHUT UP!!" Vegeta roared. "We are _not_ going to die. The King of the Saiyans -- i.e. me -- will not let that happen."

"You tell 'em Veggie-chan!" The older Bulma exclaimed.

"Shut up onna," Vegeta muttered. "Anyway, we're gonna to build that ship, we're gonna to go out into outerspace, we're going to track down that metal, and we're gonna save these dimensions! Are you with me?"

"HAI!" The group chorused.

"Then let's do it!"

A loud cheer errupted and everyone ran out of the lab. Goku lingered for a second to have a word with his reluctant friend.

"Vegeta?"

"Nani?"

"Nice pep-talk! I didn't know you had it in you!" Goku grinned.

"Shut up Kakarott."

***

"Extra emergency fuel?" the younge Bulma called out.

"Hai!" Trunks and Goten carried some large barrels into the storage area.

"Spare clothing?"

"Hai!"

"The gravity chamber Trunks' mother gave me the plans for?"

"Does it go up to 3000 G's?" Vegeta asked, interrupting the checklist.

"What do you think Vegetable Head?" she asked.

Vegeta frowned. "You better be glad that my Bulma and you are one in the same because if you weren't..."

"I know, I know. I'll be taking a--" And then everyone from his dimension said this in unison with her. "one-way trip to Hell."

Vegeta smirked. "Good. There may be hope for you earthlings yet."

Bulma rolled her eyes and resumed her previous task. "1000 tons of food?"

Goten drooled at the thought and then snapped out of his trance. "HAI!"

"You better cook that _before_ you eat it. It wouldn't do for you to get food poisoning or something."

"Don't wory. I'll make sure that they do like civilized people." Gohan assured.

"Onna we're saiyans. We eat food like that all the time." Nappa said.

"What about the young ones? They're only half you know. Their human sides might rebel."

"She's right," Gohan said.

Nappa glared at being proved wrong and turned away. Bulma checked a few more things off and raised an eyebrow at something.

"Hot tub?"

The younger ChiChi grinned sheepishly. "Can I have one?"

"Now you know that you can't ChiChi-chan."

Bulma crossed it off and read something else out loud. "Playboys?!"

Trunks looked up from where he was trying to hit Nappa's bald head with rocks. "I can dream can't I?"

"I just _knew_ Master Roshi ruined his mind," Goku muttered. "Glad the other Bulma didn't overhear this one."

She crossed that off too and made an unidentifiable noise. "Pocky I can do. Who's request was that?"

No one responded until Vegeta spoke up. "Did you get the chocolate kind?"

Everyone sweatdropped.

"Hai Vegeta-san. I got the chocolate kind."

"You better had."

She rolled her eyes and he went back to annoying Raditz. For some reason that had become his new hobby. "Anything else I'm missing?"

"Nope. None that I think of."

"Can we go now?" Goten whined. "This is boring!"

"Goten! Have patience." The older ChiChi called from her seat in a lawn chair.

"Aw Kaasan!"

"Then you can all go. Remember, you only have--"

"We know. 3 days and 9.5 hours." Trunks finished.

"Don't forget the 34 minutes," the older ChiChi mentioned absently.

"34 minutes? What about 34 minutes?" Gohan asked, confused.

"They go with the 13 seconds," the younger Bulma took a seat next to ChiChi.

"There never was 34 minutes and 13 seconds involved before!" Gohan exlaimed.

"Hai, I know. It came into existence _after_ you went marching out like you were going to play in the Super Bowl."

Vegeta glared at her but it wasn't effective since her eyes were closed.

"Now you go and save humanity. Remember: Our lives are resting in your hands." Bulma grinned at them. "Ta ta!"

" 'Our lives are resting in your hands'." ChiChi mumbled. "Great! If we fail, everyone dies. Just wonderful!" She stomped on board. Trunks and Goten followed waving goodbye and Gohan came next.

"Sayonara Kaasan. Bulma. I'll see you when we get back." He turned and sighed. "Things were so much simpler when I was a child." Then he thought about what he said. "Maybe not."

Raditz and Nappa were next followed closely by Kakarott. He looked about him one last time, marveling at the beauty of Chikyuu, and went inside. Vegeta was right behind him, not even bothering to look back, and finally Goku was last. He paused briefly and looked to his wife.

"You will be all right, won't you?" he asked with uncharacteristic concern.

"Yes Goku. Go do what you do the best. I'll be cheering for you! Just don't die this time, okay?" He nodded and waved as the hatch closed and the engines started. ChiChi rose from her seat and waved a handkerchief.

"Sayonara Goku! I'll be waiting!"


	14. Chapter 14

A couple of minutes after the hatch closed, ChiChi and Gohan started off to the bridge to familiarize themselves with the controls.

"Hmm," Gohan said thoughtfully "I think that based on Bulma's written instructions will get this ship moving in no time."

"Or," ChiChi cut in. "you could just press the button that has 'Lift Off' under it."

Gohan blushed slightly and coughed nervously. "Um hai. Of course."

Vegeta entered the room and leaned against a wall. "Capsule Corp. ships aren't that complicated. I mean Kakarott flew one to Planet Namek!"

Gohan frowned. "My Tousan is _*not*_ and idiot Veggie Man!"

Vegeta marched right up to Gohan and glared at him. "You wanna settle this then? No spawn of Kakarott could beat me in a sparring match."

Gohan glared right back but his target was a lot lower. "I _*was*_ going to just let your idiotic comment go but you took it too far when you insulted me. Let's go Vegetable Head!"

ChiChi stepped in-between them and pushed against them, trying to move them back. She strained for a moment then sighed and gave up.

Goten and Trunks ran into the room and right up to the confrontation. 

"I've got 5 bucks on Gohan!" Goten cheered.

"Me too!" Trunks added.

Vegeta looked at his son. "You would pick this _*boy*_ ," he said this with disgust, "over me?"

Trunks shrugged. "Of course. Everyone knows Gohan is stronger than you when he really gets going."

"Yeah and he has his mystic ability! You can't do _*that*_ can you?" Gohan taunted.

Trunks ran over to Nappa and the others. "Who are you betting on?"

"We don't have any money..." Nappa said slowly.

"That's alright. If you loose, you have to give me and Goten part of your dinner for tonight."

Raditz nodded. "Okay. I bet on Gohan."

"As does I," Kakarott said.

"Me too." Nappa added.

"Well I don't know about you third class weaklings but I'm betting on Vegeta!" the other Vegeta proclaimed loudly.

"I'm not third class!" Nappa yelled.

"Whatever."

"What a minute!" Goku came in here and forcefully pushed Vegeta and Gohan apart. The two glared at Goku, angry at him for getting involved.

"Tousan," Goten began, "you want a bet too?"

"Iie. This is wrong! We have a more important problem. Can't this wait until we save everyone?"

Gohan was the first to nod and turn away. Vegeta just stood there a second longer then he stomped toward the gravity chamber. The other saiyans lingered a few seconds until ChiChi waved them away.

"We have things to do! Go fight each other or something." She sat down in her co-pilot chair to turned to Gohan who was still angry.

"C'mon Gohan. We have a job to do." He nodded and she turned on the intercom system. "Going on the current atmospheric conditions, I think that you may need to hold on until we clear the exosphere." She paused and then continue. "Before you ask, that's the layer of the atmosphere that is the closest to vacuum of space. Once we clear it, the conditions will not effect us and we will be free to use the locator."

She switched off the comm system and leaned back into the chair, fastening herself in. Gohan smiled at her approvingly before he did the same.

"I didn't know that you understood meteorology."

She readied the thrusters and checked the gauges one last time. "There's a lot that you don't know about me and I'm sure that it's the same way with your own mother."

*******

"Why did they bring us along?" Raditz asked Kakarott and Nappa. "I mean, we aren't going to be helping or anything."

"I think," the younger Vegeta spat out, "that they assume we were going to cause trouble while they were away. I mean we _*were*_ but that's not the point." He paused from where he was lifting weights and sat up. "They're acting as our babysitters you know."

"Well not me," Kakarott said. "I pose no threat. They actually wanted my help."

"Well good for you!" Vegeta said sarcastically. "You win the Goodie Two-shoes award!"

"No he doesn't," a new voice spoke up. The older Vegeta walked into the training room. "That one goes to Kakarott."

"That's what I said retard!"

"Iie not _*that*_ Kakarott! The other one. At least this one still acts somewhat like a saiyan."

"What has niichan told you about insulting my Tousan?" Goten asked as he entered. "He can still kill you ya know!"

"No he can't!" Vegeta laughed. "Your 'Tousan' wouldn't hurt an ant crossing the sidewalk if he could help it!"

Goten growled and that was the only warning Vegeta got before he launched his small body at him. About 4 inches before his fist collided with Vegeta's face, he was stopped by a hand that had him dangling in mid air.

Without turning around Goten began to whine. "Aw Tousan! Why'd you stop me!"

"Because, like the fight with your brother, this can wait until later." After setting him down on the floor, Goku turned and went to get something to eat.

*******

The hours went on and the longer the journey lasted, the more bored the young demi-saiyans got.

Gohan had pre-programmed the ships computer to just follow the signal the tracking device was giving off. He and ChiChi were currently involved in a discussion about the joys of cooking french food.

"I can make a mean Filet Mignon in white sauce."

"Yeah?" ChiChi responded. "Well that won't beat my Ratatouille."

"You know, seeing a mighty warrior turned chef is just plain sad." Trunks mentioned. Goten agreed. The purple haired boy finished sharpening his sword and motioned to Goten to follow him.

"PAPA!" he shouted as he neared Vegeta. Flinching slightly Vegeta responded.

"What do you want brat?"

"Are we there yet?"

"Obviously not."

"Are we there yet?" Goten asked, grinning.

"No..."

"Are we there yet?" the two asked in unison.

"NO!"

Trunks cleared his throat and Goten pulled out a kazoo. After a briefly blown note they launched into a song.

"Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Veggie-chan, Veggie-chan--"

"IF YOU TWO DON'T SHUT UP I'LL SHUT YOU UP!!"

The two children broke out into hysterical giggles and ran off back to the bridge.

Now Gohan and ChiChi were engaged in something else.

"1, 2, 3, 4, I declare a thumb war! 5, 6, 7, 8, let's see who can keep it straight!"

Eyes wide with silent horror, the two kids backed out slowly and closed the door.

"Let us never speak of this again," Trunks and Goten shook hands and went off in oposite directions.

*******

"Two-thousand, five-hundred and one, two-thousand, five-hundred and two..."

A small group gazed at Goku during his one-finger pushups. "How many more is he going to do?" Nappa questioned.

Raditz shrugged. "I dunno. We'll just have to wait and see."

"Two-thousand, five-hundred and ten..."

"Dinner is served!" ChiChi called from the kitchen. Goku cheered, did a flip that landed him on his feet, and took off.

"Does that answer your question?" Raditz asked as the group followed more slowly.

*******

Trunks and Goten were already seated at the table, forks and knives in their hands.

"We wanna eat! We wanna eat!" they chanted.

"Hold on! Hold on! Gohan's not quite done yet."

" 'Gohan's not quite done yet' " the younger Vegeta asked curiously. "Why is he doing a onna's job?"

ChiChi walked up to him calmly. "And why do you say that is a woman's job?"

"Because it is!"

ChiChi smiled gently and then, without warning, she punched him in the nose, breaking it. "And that is what you get for saying that."

Vegeta howled and clutched at his face. The others roared with laughter as he got up and ran out of the room to set it.

"Nice job ChiChi!" Gohan complemented.

She smiled modestly. "It was nothing really."

After they had calmed down, Nappa leaned towards his friend. "Remind me to _*never_ * make her angry."

Raditz nodded. "Only if you do the same for me."


	15. Chapter 15

"One thousand bottles of beer on the wall, one thousand bottles of beer!" Goten and Trunks sang. "Take one down and pass it around, one thousand bottles of beer on the wall. Ninety-nine bottles of beer..." And it went on and on.

It was about a week later and all present were bored out of their minds. They had exited the solar system some time ago and was currently some three light years away.

Vegeta, Goku, and all the rest were sitting in the chairs on the bridge having grown bored of sparring or training alone some time ago. They had even gotten tired of eating and that was pretty extreme for a saiyan.

Then a Klaxon siren went off. ChiChi rushed to the monitors thinking something was wrong and sighed when relief when she found out that it wasn't.

Gohan ran into the room, hair still wet from his recent shower. "What's wrong? Is everyone all right?"

"Hai Gohan. We're fine." ChiChi took her seat.

"Then what's going on?"

"We've just finally found a planet with the kind of metal that we need, that's all."

"That's all? THAT'S ALL?! We're finally able to complete our mission and you're acting indifferent!"

"Well we can't do anything until we rate the atmosphere and see if we can breathe it, send out a scouting party, gather our tools... basically we need a plan first."

"Fine." Gohan raised his ki to vaporize any excess water and sat down calmly. "So what do we do?"

"Uh Niichan, you're the smartest one here." He gulped at a look from ChiChi. "And ChiChi's the second. You two are the plan makers." The other saiyans nodded, leaned back in their seats, folded their hands in their laps, and waited.

"Okay. We first have to break into two different groups. The scouters and the miners. Tousan, you and ChiChi will be the group leaders. I'm sure you know which groups."

Both nodded and he continued. "Both Vegetas, Raditz, and Nappa will be in the scouting group with my Tousan. The rest will be miners. I made sure you were with ChiChi Kakarott."

"Arigatou," the saiyan replied.

During the planning period, ChiChi was checking over the air quality. "It's clean," she announced. "Although the gravity is twice that of Chikyuu."

Kakarott turned worried eyes to her. "Can you handle it?"

"I have no idea. I never trained in the gravity room because one person always need to be here to keep an eye on things and I knew Gohan would want to train some. I can only hope so."

"The onna should be able to," the older Vegeta spoke up, "She's strong enough."

"Well thank you for saying that but remember this for next time: I have a name."

"Sure you do * _onna_ *. Whatever you say * _onna_ *."

ChiChi growled and started to march up to him to teach him a lesson when Kakarott grabbed her by the waist. He was dragged a few feet before they both came to a complete stop.

"Well, now there's no doubt in my mind that you aren't my Kaasan," Gohan chuckled. "Though she's quite a bit more frightening."

ChiChi slapped at him playfully before she left the room for the storage area. "Someone better come help me carry this stuff or Gohan and I will be the only ones eating tonight!" she yelled back to them.

There was a stampede for the door and everyone of them go stuck. Goten wiggled through first and rushed down the hallway.

"I won! I won!" he shouted.

"Goten dear it wasn't a race." ChiChi said, smiling.

"Oh. I knew that," he gave her the classic sheepish Son smile and grabbed some tools.

*******

After everything was piled before the door, Gohan waved the scouts out.

Five hours later they returned.

"What in the world took you so long?!" The ones that had remained on the ship asked.

Goku came in looking weary and sat down on the floor. "It was Vegeta's fault completely."

"Why? What did he do?" ChiChi asked.

Raditz growled in the older Vegeta's general direction and sat down in a nearby chair. "This planet has intelligent life."

"Oh?"

"Yes. They also have an area similar to Chikyuu's Los Vegas."

"Really?" Gohan asked, interested.

Nappa nodded. "Prince Vegeta got a little wrapped up at the roulet table."

"And?" Kakarott said. "That shouldn't have taken 5 hours!"

Goku sighed. "That wasn't we took so long. Vegeta won a lot of money."

"And?"

"He thought that he couldn't loose! So he bet one more time..."

"Go on!"

Vegeta came into the room and stared at everyone defiantly. "I bet it all on number 23 red. And I lost it all."

"That only took us 2 and a half hours though." the younger Vegeta replied. "We spent the other 2 and a half in prision."

Gohan and ChiChi both gasped. "How did you get in there?"

"The idiot tried to kill the dealer because he refused to give him his money back." Kakarott said grumpily. "They had ki supressors so they easily subdued us after we stopped Vegeta. It took us the whole time pleading with the cops! The worst thing was they couldn't even understand out language."

"English is the intergalactic trade language! I checked with Bulma before we left. Why couldn't they understand you?"

"Vegeta would only speak in the native saiyan language to give the officials a hard time. They wouldn't listen to the rest of us because he was the one who had actually done the crime. They had also remembered how former saiyans had destroyed their neighboring planet 200 years ago. Apparently those people hold lengthy grudges."

"I see. Where are we in terms of location?" Gohan asked.

It was Goku's turn to speak up. "We're about 200 miles away from the capital city."

"Okay then. Let's go!"

*******

"You WHAT?!" Vegeta yelled.

"I said that you can't have that metal, alien!" A man with overalls asked. They were down at a mining company trying to get some assitance. The man speaking with them was balding, pudgy, he had a large nose with eyes that were too close together, and he was * _extremely_ * ugly. He was that planets version of a redneck. "You wanna make sumthin' of it?"

"Look sir," Gohan began. "You obviously don't know what exactly is going on. If we don't get that metal, everyone in this dimension is going to die!"

"Yeah. Yeah. That excuse isn't new. Jus' last week I had a feller come in here sayin' his apartment buildin' needed the materials." The man spat on the ground and continued to chew. "It fell down last week but that doesn't mean that he wasn't lyin'!"

They whole entire group sweatdropped and Goku tried his hand at this. "If we do something for you will you give it to us?"

"Well I dunno. Ya see I reckon I would have ta take that up with the mayor of this here fair city."

"Well tell us where he is before I have to hurt you!" ChiChi grabbed the short man by his shirt and brought him up to her eye level.

"I can't. Ya have to have a appointment! The waitin' list's so long I've been waiting eva since last fall!"

ChiChi released him, angry, and stomped out of the office. The rest followed, each submersed in their own troubled thoughts.

"Stupid, uncivilized, redneck, RETARD!" ChiChi kicked a garbage can as she walked by it. "These fools don't even care that we're on a quest to save DIMENSIONS!" Kakarott approached her and slung an arm around her shoulders.

"ChiChi, they just don't believe us. Would you believe it if you were in their shoes?"

"No but--"

"You see? They can't be blamed for this. We'll just have to * _make_ * someone listen..."

"I hear you're looking for the 'junsei metaru'," a black clothed figure stepped from the shadows of a back alley. He was about Gohans height and even his face was bathed in darkness.

"Who are you? And how do you know Japanese?" Gohan asked suspiciously.

The figure looked about him cautiously. "This isn't the place to discuss this. Follow me."

With the exchange of both confused and uncertain glances, the rather large group followed the man between two buildings and into a whole new world of sorrowful gloom.


	16. Chapter 16

"We have a little underground system on this planet," the figure, whose name was Nathell, told them. "I've been studying the planet called Chikyuu so I know you have an equivalent. That is also how I learned the language of Japanese." He made himself more comfortable on the crate and leaned back towards a wall. "You call it the black market."

"That black market?!" Gohan exclaimed. "Don't tell me that you are going to get that metal illegally!"

Nathell gave him a hard look. "Do you think that you have a choice? Or would you rather wait about 7-9 months to see the mayor?" Then he gave them a mock surprised look. "Oh wait! You can't! Everyone is going to be dead by then!"

The older Vegeta growled and grabbed Nathell by the collar of his trench coat. "Listen here, we need that and we need it now! So are you going to tell us exactly * _how*_ to get it or am I going to have to beat it out of you?!"

"Put. Me. Down." the man said harshly. It even made Veggie rethink what he was doing.

"He's our only chance so please put him down!" ChiChi cried.

Vegeta complied and Nathell brushed the wrinkles away. "I'll help you but you have to do something for me."

"Anything!" ChiChi and Gohan said in unison.

"Anything?" he asked, a strange gleam in his eye.

***

"Iie! Anything but this!" Gohan said as he looked down at his outfit.

He and the others were similarily dressed in black. Black coats, black clothes, black hats, and there were even black paint on their faces.

"You are Night People. You must become the darkness if you want to succeed."

"Can you * _please_ * give us something else to do?" ChiChi asked but not everyone was skeptical about this getup.

"Sugoi! We get to be gangsters Goten!" Trunks cheered. He and his friend were checking out thier outfits and the weapons that they would get to use. Nathell said that they couldn't use their powers because that would scare away their "customers".

The man ignored her and went on the explain in detail what he wanted them to do.

"You will split up into different groups and take on different parts of the city. Some are a lot worse than others but I think that you'll be okay. I also may have you expand to different parts of the planet itself but that will come later." He snapped his fingers and an underling jumped to do his bidding.

A holographic image popped up at the center of the room and they all closed in to see.

"This," Nathell snapped out a pointer and moved it over to an upper section of the city. "is area A2. Or the Upper Darkness as we like to call it."

ChiChi audibly gulped at the name.

"There are only semi-rough people here so I think that I'll send you, you, and you." He pointed to Nappa, Raditz, and the younger Vegeta. "You are to go to a warehouse there and make a pickup. I will tell you later what the codeword is."

Those three moved off to the side and Nathell moved on.

"You, you, and you," he pointed to ChiChi, Goten, Trunks, and Kakarott, "are doing a little "bill collecting" in area D2 or the Lower Darkness. It's in the middle range in the area of difficulty. The strength of the people here varies but most are fighters.

"Now for you three," he said indicating Vegeta, Goku, and Gohan.

"Sir, I have a feeling you've got us in groups based on power," Gohan said nervously.

"Yep. You've got that right. You see, I can also sense ki. Now you probably know what you'll be doing and where you'll be going but I'll tell you anyway." He pointed to another place. "This is Central Square. There are all types here. You would think that being surrounded by govermental places would calm it down some but that isn't the case. The government doesn't bother them and they don't bother the government. Rather, they bother everyone else.

"You three are being sent on a * _very_ * special mission," The firelight made his eyes glint evilly. "In addition to making a drop off, you have to dodge the rival gangs."

"No problem," Vegeta said.

He shook a finger. "Uh uh uh. It's not that easy." He had his worker zoom in closer on the center square of the map. "You will enter to the south, the drop off is to the north, And by dodge I meant evade them completely. You cannot let them see you for any reason. The person you are getting the supplies to is not so carefully hidden. There are people in both gangs who can kill him at any time. They are just waiting for an opportunity." He paused to take a sip from his wine glass.

"There is an unwritten law in the rough areas: You must have a reason to kill. Entering their territory gives them an * _extremely_ * good reason."

"Is this even possible to do?" Goku asked.

"Yes. It is. You don't have to kill anyone so that's a good point. Unless things start getting a little bad."

"I'll handle it," Vegeta spoke up. "These two have a problem with taking lives."

"Right," Nathell nodded. "I'm short on people so you guys will have to do." He pulled something from behind him and held it out. "These are the communicators that we use on missions. Each group will have one to radio back when they finish. If someone asks you for help DO NOT go to them until your own job in complete. Is that understood?"

Everyone nodded and took one.

"I will take you to where you have to go using the underground pathway. After that you are on your own."

***

"What are we supposed to do again?" Nappa asked Vegeta.

The younger saiyan sighed and began to explain it. Again.

"We're supposed to go to Grechee Street and meet an agent in a back alley in front of the warehouse. From there, after we say the code word, we're to take it back to the base. It's simple you idiot!"

"Right. Right." They crept along side a building on the street and paused at the intersection.

"There! You see it?" Raditz whispered. "The sign's over there."

A blue sign with white lettering was on a pole at the corner. The native language was first, then another language that they didn't understand, followed by it in english.

"Let's go and get this over with," The looked both ways and began to cross. "Whoa! Back up!" Vegeta shouted. Suddenly a sports car came zooming around the corner. Nappa jumped back, barely missing the loss of a toe.

"Where did that come from?!" Raditz asked. He attemped to cross it again and the same thing happened, this time with a truck. "Is this going to be the same every time we attempt to cross? This is insane!"

Vegeta thought a second and then came up with an idea. "I have it!" Grabbing Nappa by his shirt, he picked him up and heaved him directly into the middle of the road.

"WHAT DID YA DO THAT FOR VEGETA?!" he shrieked. The other two ran across while he just sat there.

"NAPPA NO BAKA! Get your bald ass over here NOW!!" Vegeta yelled at him.

The bald saiyan stood and jumped straight up and over the car that headed towards him. The driver kept going without even looking back to see if he was okay.

Nappa made it across without further incident and glanced back one more time.

"You know My Prince, I * _swear_ * they have that set up that way on purpose!"

***

"Ba da daaaaa, ba da daaaaa, ba da daaaaa, daa daa," Trunks and Goten both hummed.

ChiChi spun around and glared. "Can you * _please_ * stop singing the song to Mission Impossible?!"

Trunks began to pout. "But it goes so well with this!"

"I don't care! You're breaking my concentration."

Kakarott chuckled and smiled at the two children. "Actually, it goes better with your Tousan's mission."

They finally emerged from the alleyway in front of...

"They have chinese restaurants?!" ChiChi exclaimed.

"These people have been spending * _way_ * too much time studying Chikyuu," Trunks commented.

The sign of The China Dragon was displayed proudly on the front of the building that looked very much like a miniature pagoda. Several different species were eating noodles with chopsticks, drinking green tea, or examining the fortunes that they had received in their cookies at the small outside eating area. There were also many different colors of chinese lanterns illuminating the area. The three slowly went up the steps and into the building, very wary of the others (who weren't even paying them any attention).

"Yes, may I help you?" A slender blue alien asked in an fake chinese accent.

"Uh," ChiChi and Kakarott exchanged glances, "we're here to see your boss."

Others walked by during the conversation. "I have no idea--" he broke off abruptly after they had passed. "Follow me."

After leading them through several back passageways they finally reached a dimly lit room. The thick, bald, green skinned alien that was sitting on a silk pillow had an air of authority about him so he was obviously the leader. There was several females in silk dresses around the room and also several of the man's bodyguards were there as well.

"Mr. Ling," ChiChi said cordially, "you know what we are here for."

"Yes. I do," He continued to drop grapes into his mouth without a second thought.

"So?"

"I am so sorry but I seem to be a little short this week," he replied.

Kakarott frowned. "From what I heard Nathell offers you protection from your rivals. You have to * _pay_ * for that protection. You are not a charity."

"I understand that fact. You can take half or none at all."

ChiChi suddenly smirked and snapped her fingers. Trunks and Goten went off to the side of the room and hit a section of the wall with their fists. The panel slid away revealing that the space beyond was full of money.

Before his bodyguards could even react, ChiChi and Kakarott had drawn their guns and were pointing them at their faces. 

"Nathell said we would have to do that," ChiChi said thoughtfully. "You either are too stupid to hid it someplace else or you * _want_ * us to rough you up a bit. Either way is pathetic."

Trunks took out an extra two hundred and stuck it in his pocket. "This is for all of the trouble we had to go through."

Their job done they all made their way towars the door. "We'll see our way out," Kakarott said.

As the left the aliens behind, Trunks began to grumble. "That was too easy! I was expecting a fight at least."

ChiChi frowned. "You watch too much t.v."


	17. Chapter 17

"Vegeta here. We made the pickup and are now comin' back to Base. I repeat: Ninmu Kanryou[1]. The Saiyan Trio is returning to Base. Over." Vegeta turned off the comm unit and just flew over the Street of Death. Raditz handed the package to his prince on the other side and they were off to find the entrance to the Underground.

***

"Vegeta, I don't think I like this," Goku said hesitantly.

"Kakarott," his friend started slowly, "did I ask you for an opinion?"

"No but..."

"Then SHUT UP!" he shouted quietly. If anyone could accomplish this feat it was Vegeta.

The taller saiyan began to protest again when they all heard gunshots.

"Oh kami!" Gohan moaned. "We've got to hide!" The three looked about them quickly and then spotted an open manhole.

"C'mon!" Goku grabbed the other two by the arms and yanked them inside just as the loud group passed by.

"Tousan," Gohan whispered. "Is that your hand on my foot?"

"No," his father said, puzzled. "Is that * _your_ * hand on my arm?"

"Kakarott! Get your hand away from me! Nobody should be touching that place except my mate and myself!"

"That's not me!"

"Then who...?"

There was a deafening roar behind them and all three jumped.

"SEWER MONSTER!!"

***

"Where can they be?!" ChiChi asked, frustrated. The other two groups had both returned some twenty odd minutes ago but Goku, Gohan, and Vegeta had all failed to show. "Are they dead or something?"

"Oh no Tousan! Niichan!" Goten wailed.

"Shhh! You're scaring my friend!" Trunks said to her. "He's quite a sensitive person."

Then the door creaked open and the third group finally arrived. Goten ran up to meet them. He skidded to a stop after he saw how they looked.

"What happened to you guys?!"

All three collapsed on the ground as Gohan triumphantly held up a gift wrapped box. "We brought this to you. The man gave it to us after we delievered what you wanted."

"All I have to say is it better be important! We had to go through a lot!" Vegeta complained.

"That still doesn't explain what happened to you," ChiChi said.

Goku was the first to recover and he explained. "We were doing fine until we heard a gang. I spotted the sewer and we ducked inside. But we had a little company."

"You should," Nathell spoke for the first time. "The weverill[2] should be thriving at this time of year."

"The WHAT?" Trunks asked.

"The weverill are a type of creature that only lives in the sewers. They're really large and are fierce if provoked."

"We now know that first hand," Gohan sighed. "We were attacked by one."

"How'd you escape?" Goten asked, entranced.

"Vegeta ki blasted it. He was the first to recover from the inital shock."

"I am used to being on guard. I once worked for Frieza remember?" he shrugged. "There were a lot of people who didn't like saiyans."

ChiChi pulled out three senzu beans and gave one to each. "You look a little beat up."

Goku chewed and swallowed. "It's mostly just scratches from that weverill's long nails."

"I have a question," Gohan spoke up once his wounds were healed. "Why in HELL didn't you tell us about those things before!"

Niichan must be * _really_ * mad if he's cursing," Goten said to Trunks thoughtfully.

"I never actually expected you to go down there!" Nathell said in his defense. "It's common knowledge that you just don't at this time of the year."

Gohan stood and glared. "And you think that even with us being foreigners that we would still know?!" The last few words were shouted. All the people who could sense ki started to back away from him and the rest followed their example.

"He's about to go super saiyan right about.... now." On Trunks' spoken word Gohan's aura flared up even more and turned to gold. A few flashes of light later Super Saiyan level one Gohan stood there in all of his glory.

He started towards him slowly stressing each of his words. "I've been SCRATCHED, BRUISED, BEATEN, and MAULED. I came on this trip for ONE LITTLE THING AND ENDED UP RUNNING YOUR STUPID ERRANDS! I AM *NOT* A MESSENGER BOY. I AM *NOT* A SERVANT! I AM A BEING OF SUPERIOR INTELLECT AND I REFUSE TO CATER TO YOUR WHIMS ANY LONGER!!!"

Nathell held out his hands and spoke in what he hoped was a soothing tone. "Okay. Okay. I am sorry. Now will you please power down? You're scaring my people."

"Us too!" Goten shouted. All the rest nodded except Vegeta and Goku.

Gohan fumed for a bit longer then he took a deep breath and powered down. Looking at Nathell one last time he ground out three words from between his clenched teeth.

"Watch. Your. Back." Spinning on his heel, he headed off for a dark corner.

"By the way," Gohan called back over his shoulder sounding unbelievably pleasant after the earlier incident, "what's in the box?"

Nathell's eyes got a farway look as he reached over and opened it. "My favorite. Double chocolate chip cookies!"

The man had a split second to think before Gohan was all over him.

***

"More ice please!" Nathell shouted.

Goten grumbled and threw a plastic bag with some at him.

"Don't act that way boy! It was your own brother who did this to me!"

Nathell was in his bed at his apartment, surrounded by the space travelers. Gohan had really done a number on him because he couldn't really do much of nothing.

Quite a few bones were broken including some in his face. There were bruises and scars all over from ki blasts and fists. ChiChi had done the best that she could on the bandaging and Vegeta knew how to elevate his two broken legs but other than that, they couldn't really do much.

After he had told everyone what exactly was in that box, Gohan had appeared at his side so fast, he left an image where he used to be. At first they were just going to let him beat out his frustration and anger on the man but when the ki blasts started appearing and when Gohan was about to break his neck, Goku deemed it time to step in. From there it had taken him, Vegeta, and two other people almost thirty minutes to call him down.

"Is he going to be okay? We really need to find that metal!" Goku whispered to ChiChi.

"He'll be fine. He may have nightmares about Gohan for a while, but he deserved it."

"I AM *NOT* APOLOGIZING!" Gohan roared from another room.

"But Niichan! He might not get us the metal if you don't!"

"I don't care!"

"I'll have Kaasan take away your food supply..."

"No!"

"I'll have her take away your laptop!"

"NO!"

"I'll tell her not to let you see Videl!"

Gohan was in that room so fast the wind in his passing knocked over a few lamps.

"I am * _so_ * sorry! Do you hurt too bad?"

Goten snickered as he entered the room. "Works every time."

***

A few days later Nathell was mobile. He brought out the holo-map again and pointed to an area that was somewhat in the corner of the city.

"This is a Corner," he started.

"We can SEE that!" the younger Vegeta said rudely.

"Duh," ChiChi added under her breath.

He continued as if he hadn't even heard them. "The Corners are important for they make up the whole of the city. This is also usually where the decent people live."

"I kind of deduced that seeing as * _you_ * live in the Western Darkness." Gohan said pretty loudly.

Nathell ignored him as well. "Most of the technoogy is created in the Corners. The best schools are here, the best jobs, hospitals... well you get the idea."

"We also get the idea that you want to live in a Corner by the way you sound when you speak of what they have," Gohan spoke up again.

The man spun on him. "Is it so bad to want to live in a safe neighborhood? Is it so bad to have an honest job for once?! It is the dream of everyone who lives in the bad areas!"

"You want to be like the Jeffersons!" Trunks exclaimed.

"What?" Nathell asked blankly.

He and Goten broke out into loud, enthusiastic singing. "We're movin' on up! To the east side! We've finally got a piece of the pie!"

Gohan made a slashing motion across his throat and the off-key voices ceased. "Hmm. I see you haven't been studying Chikyuu as much as you say. It's a television show."

"Before he goes off again, can we * _please_ * just get that metal and leave?" ChiChi asked. "I promise we won't bring Gohan back ever again."

"Fine," Nathell huffed. "There are four different places to go in the four Corners. But unfortunately you can only get one try and only one location is the real one."

"What are you talking about?" the older Vegeta asked.

"Only one of the metal places is the real deal. The others have the fake stuff. I can not tell you which is which."

The dangerous look returned to Gohan's eyes. "Are you saying that you refuse to?"

Nathell's eyes widened. "NO! I really don't know! Someone * _please_ * call him off! My body can only take so much abuse."

ChiChi spoke softly to the boy and then whispered to Nathell. "It would do you good not to say anything like that about him. He's not an animal."

"In understand. I tell you all that I know but can it wait until tomorrow? I'm tired."

They all left the bedroom, leaving the man to his pain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1]: Ninmu Kanryou = misson accomplished/complete
> 
> [2]: weverill = wev - er - rull


	18. Chapter 18

The early morning sunlight found everyone seated in Nathell's living room in as comfortable a position as they could find on his threadbare floor. Gohan had the lone leather recliner all to himself and since Nathell was too scared to tell him to move, he chose a three-legged stool.

"There's a man named in the Wu Fong in the Central Square."

At the mere mention of that place, Goku's eyebrows shot up.

"You're not going to the same part as before so you don't need to worry... much. Now," the newly crippled man continued, "he is the source all of the information that runs in the city. If you want to find out something, ninety-nine percent of the time he knows it. But first you must make an appointment and second you have to prove yourselves. He's real big on tradition."

"Is he supposed to tell us where the real metal is?" ChiChi asked.

"Yes. But it's not that easy." he shifted on his thin cushion to get more comfortable. Gohan didn't offer the obviously suffering man his chair but rather sat forward a little, watching him squirm.

"What do we do to prove ourselves?" Gohan finally spoke. He fixed Nathell with a stare that left him slightly chilled.

"Uh," he fidgeted. "Um..."

"Gohan, come over here," ChiChi motioned to the seat next to her on the worn sofa. With one last smirk in the poor man's direction he obediently stood and took that seat. Nathell exhaled audibly and continued with what he was saying.

"Gohan," ChiChi whispered, "leave the man alone! You've already traumatized him!"

"Why ChiChi!" he exclaimed innocently. "Whatever do you mean?"

She gave him a sharp look that instantly reminded him of his own mother at home. He cringed slightly in rememberance.

The boy gave her a short nod and returned his attention to the speaker.

"....then a handpicked agent will lead you to his hideout."

Gohan blinked confusedly and his brow furrowed in concentration. "Can you repeat all of that?"

The whole group voiced a collective sigh and Nathell went into his explanation again.

"You first have to show that you are worthy, that you deserve the information that Wu Fong will tell you. The actual deed will vary but I can tell you one thing: it will be dangerous."

"That's easy!" Trunks said. "Can we use our powers?"

"For this one, yes. But I can't help you prepare. Sorry." That last word was more aimed at Gohan then at the group.

"Fine," Gohan sighed as he stood. "Where do we go to get the info on the test?"

"There's a chinese restaurant on the east side. It's near the junction of the Northwestern Corner and the Eastern Darkness..."

"Aw man! Do we have to go to another chinese place?" Goten complained.

"No!" Nathell snapped. "I just used it to direct you to the proper place!" He took a deep breath and continued. "Two blocks south there is a street called Cherry Blossom. Right directly in the middle of the first section there is a small turnoff that is partially hidden by bushes. You need to go into the alleyway and knock on the door that is there. Remember, always be on guard because Wu's bodyguards are merciless." He snapped his fingers to call a servant. "Get me a glass of water."

"Is there some kind of signal or something to let those in the building know what we want?" Kakarott questioned.

"Yes," the man answered after his thirst was quenched. "They will tell you a phrase and you must answer correctly. 'The Lolla Frogs seem to be thriving this year' and you answer with: 'but the Kuchi Bird is becoming extinct'."

They all nodded at this strange saying but Nappa was confused the most.

"What the hell are kuchi birds?" he asked loudly.

Nathell motioned to Trunks to hand him the Big Book of the Animal Kingdom from a far bookshelf. Trunks didn't want to at first but when the man produced a king sized chocolate bar he was extremely eager.

" 'Kuchi Birds are flightless animals that have bright green and yellow feathers and webbed feet. They are usually found in swamps in southern climates and can be hostile is bothered. They eat--' "

"I don't want a damn zoology lesson!" the older Vegeta interrupted. "I just want to go home! My training to beat Kakarott has been interrupted enough!"

Kakarott looked confused for a second until Goku smiled slightly and pointed to himself.

"Oh!" he nodded and leaned back into the couch where he was sitting on the floor between ChiChi's legs. "I get it."

"What if we answer wrong?" Raditz asked.

Nathell pulled a pad from his pocket along with a pencil. "Don't. I advise you to write it down."

Goku took it from him and quickly jotted it down, ripping the paper out and sticking it in his pocket. Vegeta had a mock surprised look on his face that Goku could even do it. He hadn't even thought that the warrior could write his own name let alone a whole sentence.

Goku just smirked and stretched. "Tell me Vegeta; how many languages can you write other than the saiyan one? Hmmm?"

Vegeta started to sputter and finally he began to shriek. "That's not important!"

Goten started to laugh hard and almost fell from where he was floating in the air. "Tousan can do two! I guess that's one more thing he's better than you at!"

Vegeta's face turned a bright shade of red and they could feel him powering up. "That's it! Now I'm mad!"

"When aren't you?" Trunks muttered. Goten snickered some more.

"Hold it!" Goku shouted. "Vegeta, that's just going to have to wait until later! Goten, we're going to have a talk."

Gohan raised an eyebrow. "You are going to give him a talk? But you *never* give talks!" He added something else hastily after a moments silence. "And that one on Namek-sei when Krillin had just died doesn't count. You were just making me leave because I was stubborn and you didn't want me hurt. Since you were so pissed at Frieza, that doesn't count as one because you're full attention was not focused on me."

His father merely rolled his eyes and grabbed Goten by his collar. The small boy dangled in his hand like a puppy as they left for another room.

***

Goten stared at the floor, truly scared of what his father had in store for him. He never had any reason to fear him before but since discipline of any sort was so out of character for Goku, he didn't have any idea what was next.

 _'This,_ ' he thought to himself, ' _must be how Trunks feels every single day._ '

"Goten, you shouldn't have gotten Vegeta angry back there." Goku turned from the window and looked at him. Goten audibly gulped.

"I know Tousan. I'm sorry." The boy still didn't look up to meet his father's eyes. "But he had it coming!"

Goku gave him a indescribable look. "Couldn't the teasing have waiting until we got home?"

"Hai, I guess so. But then the opening wouldn't be there!"

Goku gave him a smile. "Well, it is fun to make him mad and see that vein on his forehead throb and his eyes twitch."

Goten laughed. "Yeah!"

Then Goku's smiled turned upside down {Cliché alert!}. "But that still doesn't make it right."

"I know and I won't do it again," he looked up then and smirked, "...until we get home."

***

During the two Sons' talk, the whole room lapsed into silence. Nathell tapped his fingers against the arm of his chair, ChiChi poked Kakarott repeatedly in his side, listening amusedly to his faint chuckles when she hit a ticklish spot, Nappa picked at some lint on his pants, Raditz and the younger Vegeta were making faces at each other, the older Vegeta was pacing the length of the room in front of the window and Gohan was freaking out their host.

The teenage saiyan had discovered joy in seeing how scared he could make that man. From the time he broke his bones the day before he practiced the art as much as he could.

"Nathell," Gohan whispered under his breath, "look this way. Look this way."

The older man could feel Gohan's eyes on him. He also could still remember the pain when he almost beat him to death. Since it was too painful to stand, he could only stay and hope that the boy would not administer another beat down.

Gohan stood and slowly walked over to the arm chair, whistling nonchalantly. Just as he was about 6 inches away he jumped as a firm hand was laid on his shoulder.

"You're taking this a little too far."

"Tousan! Uh hi! How did your talk with totochan go?"

Goku spun him around and fixed him with a hard stare. "Leave Nathell alone."

Gohan, eyes wide, could only nod as he inwardly flinched at his father's gaze. Nodding with satisfaction, Goku turned and went to talk to Vegeta.

Gohan blinked and sat down on the floor. "Is there something in your water or something? I can't remember the last time he acted the least bit parental!"


	19. Chapter 19

"Are you all set?" Nathell asked. It was the next day and all ten people stood in his front entry hall. "You know you really don't have to send everyone. I could use some people here to help me out..."

Gohan smirked almost evilly as he raised his hand slightly.

"I'll stay--"

"NO YOU WON'T!!" the other man shrieked as he opened his door and started to shove people out into the hallway of his apartment building.

"Hey!" Trunks called back. "If you're so big in the crime world and you know a lot, how come you live in such a crappy house?"

Nathell shrugged. "I observe my surroundings and I never said I was rich." He slammed the door shut and the throwing of several locks could be heard.

Goku sighed and shook his head. "Your mother is going to kill me when she sees you acting like Vegeta. Your the last person anyone would suspect threatening people."

Gohan shrugged. "It's harmless and besides, I still don't like to hurt people. He was the one who pushed me too far in the first place. You know what usually happens when someone does that."

"Yeah!" Goten chimed in. "People die! I've heard what happened to Cell!"

Gohan blushed slightly in his modesty. "That was nothing..."

"Nothing?!" Trunks asked. "You really vaporized 'em!"

"That was only because he caused Tousan's death and because I felt guilty."

"Don't forget Frieza," Vegeta spoke up. They were walking down the side walk to the place that Nathell had specified. "I couldn't believe that little brat had so much ki!"

"I'm not a brat," Gohan muttered. "I wasn't one then either."

His protest went unheard of as everyone enthusiastically started to discuss previous battles.

"To me, the best battle ever was the one against Frieza!" Goku said excitedly. "Did you know how many jokes I came up with about him?"

"That fight was nothing!" Vegeta loudly interrupted. "The battle against you was pretty good. I would have won if that stupid brat hadn't of transformed..."

"I AM NOT A STUPID BRAT!!" Gohan shrieked.

"Vegeta, I think that you better be quiet," ChiChi hissed.

"I agree with ChiChi. We don't need another beat up baka on our hands," Kakarott mentioned.

Vegeta opened his mouth to say something else when Goku slapped his hands over it. The smaller saiyan struggled but he was no match for Goku's strength. When he went super saiyan, so did Goku, matching him level for level. Finally Vegeta stopped and glared fiercely.

"Are you calm now, Gohan?" ChiChi asked.

"If he calls me a brat one more time..." the boy let that threat hang in the air as he slowly lowered his ki.

"Niichan," Goten asked with his very best innocent expression in place on his face, "why are you so eager to attack everyone?"

Gohan didn't answer instead he shot his little brother a look that promised death by a blunt object if he said another word. Goten wisely decided to stay quiet.

By this time they were walking up Perot Drive about to approach the traffic light to cross.

"Wait a minute!" Nappa held up a hand to halt the procession. "These streets are deadly!"

"That's right!" Raditz added. "Nappa almost got flattened the last time. After Vegeta-ouji threw him in the middle of the street of course."

Vegeta snorted and strode foreward. "You weaklings are pitiful! Scared of some stupid motor vehicle." He held his head up high and marched across the street at a leisurely pace.

As soon as his feet hit the pavement, a huge semi-truck came around the corner doing at least 90.

"I can't watch!" Nappa and the rest turned their heads fully expecting to see Vegeta splattered across the roadway when they looked again. After hearing no sound for several moments, Goten's curiosity got the better of him and he peeked between splayed fingers.

It seemed as if the driver of that semi had slammed on the brakes at the last second sending him careening toward a nearby lampost where he proceeded to fly through the windshield at a very fast speed. There was blood and broken glass everywhere but the most shocking thing was that Vegeta was still directly in the middle of the road with a strange smile on his face.

He blew on his fingertips and buffed them against his t-shirt. Giving an extremely self-satisfied smirk to the quickly gathering crowd he said in a proud filled voice:

"Hn. Still got it."

*******

Gohan pounded on the warehouse door with the fervor of a desperate man as soon as they had reached the alley of Cherry Blossom Street.

A small slot slowly slid open. Immediately a gravely voice spouted the first part of the password:

"The Lolla Frogs seem to be thriving this year," halting the man waited somewhat impatiently for the rest.

"but the.... but the...." Goku frowned in concentration.

There was a faint sound of guns being cocked in the distance.

"Remember what we told you on the ship," the younger Vegeta whispered harshly, "They have ki supressors! They're really easy to come by if you know where to look."

Goku's frown became fiercer as he started to argue with Vegeta. "I don't see you helping!"

Gohan glared at the two. Sticking a hand in his Tousan's pocket, he pulled the piece of paper out and began to read from it.

"but the Kuchi Bird is becoming extinct."

Goku grinned sheepishly, one hand behind his head. "Oops?"

Before Gohan could start yelling, the door creaked open and they were ushered inside.

*******

They were led directly to a man who looked like he should belong in a gangster movie.

White pin-striped suit, black shoes, a black and white hat, and he was flanked on either site by some burly looking guards who looked as if they could kill you several different ways. And even then, they could probably be creative.

The man behind the desk was yelling into a phone when the group arrived in his office.

"I don't care * _what_ * you have to do! Your people are expendable, my woman is not." He slammed down the receiver without saying goodbye, took a deep breath, and turned to his guests outwardly calm.

"Yes? You're reason for being in my presence is?"

The king Vegeta looked down his royal nose at the audacity of the wannabe godfather.

"We only require two things of you," he glared harder, hoping to break the man. He had no such luck. "One is to let Wu Fong know we require his services and the other is to tell what the test is."

The man looked them over silently for a second before he started to crack up. Sharing the laugh with his men, everyone in the room started to laugh heartilly.

"Did you hear this guys? They want to see Wu Fong!"

Vegeta frowned in annoyance and slammed his hands, palm down, on the table, leaning over it.

"If you don't let that man know we want to see him and tell us what that damn test is you're going on a ONE WAY TRIP TO HELL!!"

The man, apprently unconcerned, motioned over his right shoulder.

"You know that was your first test, don't you?"

He only received blank looks.

Chuckling slightly he picked up the document that one of his men had left behind. "I was testing you to see how bad you wanted Wu. Whoever told you of me had to of told you that you must prove that your worthy." Scanning the page he pulled out a pen. "By the way, I'm Aniirin[1]."

Pushing the form toward Vegeta, he motioned at the lines on the page. "All of you have to sign this first."

"Why?" ChiChi asked.

Aniirin smirked. "It just states that in case of problems, injury, or death you will * _not_ * blame it on any of us. That you take full credit for whatever happens to you out there."

"We must confer about this first, you understand." Vegeta said.

"Of course." Aniirin shrugged. "Just don't take too long. I'm a busy man."

They formed a ten person huddle and began to discuss the situation.

"I don't believe we have a choice," Kakarott said. "We don't have time to look for an alternative way."

"I agree. Besides, we can handle whatever comes our way, right?" ChiChi asked.

Nodding, they all turned to face Aniirin.

"We accept your terms," Vegeta informed him.

"Good. Just sign on the dotted line and next to your name put what planet you're from."

He received weird looks.

"I know your aliens. I can't just say your address', can I?"

They all signed, one after the other, and Aniirin leaned back in his leather swivel chair.

"Now, this is what you have to do..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1]: This name is  
> from a Dragonlance book (Defenders of Magic, vol. 3 to be exact).  
> I'm not sure on the correct pronunciation but in my fic it's  
> "An - na - rin".


	20. Chapter 20

"All you have to do is find three rare plants. The Lava Flower, the cuminus herb, and the ultra rare Drasil plant."

King Vegeta blinked. "Is that it? We're going on a treasue hunt?!"

Aniirin smirked. "It's not as easy as it sounds."

Veget returned the expression. "Believe me, it is."

Aniirin reached opened a drawer within his desk and started to root around. He pulled out the first piece of paper he felt and looked at it.

It was a placemat like the kind that you gave toddlers at restaurants to keep them occupied while the food came. This particular one featured a maze that wasn't even complete.

The whole group burst out laughing and he blushed bright red.

"What?" he asked. "I, uh, took my son out to eat yesterday!"

"Right!" ChiChi gigled. "How come you signed your name in the corner?"

He looked where she indicated and sweated even more. "He's also named Aniirin?" he said, not even believing the lie himself.

That made them laugh even more until the man produced the thing he was looking for.

"Ah ha! Here's it is!" He unfolded it and spread it out on his desk, ignoring the still lingering snickers. "This is a map of the wildlands outside of this city. You will have to go here to find what you're looking for." He paused and motioned with his hand. A servant brought something else. "Here is also a guide book for newcomers to our planet. It tells of all our flora and fauna. Especially the deadly types." He handed it to Gohan who immediately began to flip through it, taking note of the poisonous things.

"How long will this take us and who do we give all of this stuff to?" the younger Vegeta questioned.

Aniirin thought briefly. "You should be finished within the week. When finished, you return here of course. If the things are correct, I'll personally escort you to Wu. Does everyone understand?"

They all nodded and turned to leave. ChiChi sighed and looked at Gohan.

"Something that was supposed to take us a few days have been taking us a couple of weeks."

He nodded. "Hai." Then he spun around and faced the leader, suddenly angry. "Look. What if we don't want to do your stupid 'trials'?"

Aniirin spoke calmly. "No trials. No access to Wu. And you need that," he added in a nasty tone, "don't you?"

Then everyone saw it. Or rather, * _felt_ * it. Gohan's face was slowly changing to a bright shade of red. He looked like he was trying really hard not to break every bone in the man's body. ChiChi looked worriedly at her future son and then back to Aniirin.

"Uh sir? I would recommend that you be quiet."

"Oh?" he asked. "And why is that?"

"Because Gohan's about to kill you."

An eyebrow was raised. "And I'm supposed to be scared?"

There was many nodded heads from the group.

"Definitely," Goten spoke up. "Niichan could kick your--"

Goku slapped a hand over his mouth. "That's enough Goten." Releasing the little one he turned to his first born. "Gohan, you can't hurt him."

Still semi-powering up, he turned to his father. "And why not?"

"He didn't do anything wrong yet!"

The older Vegeta snorted and shook his head. "Kakarott, do you want to stay here any longer?"

"Well no, but..."

"That's all the answer I need!" Vegeta powered up to super saiyan and started to ready a ki blast in his hand. "This won't hurt for long..."

"WAIT!" Gohan shouted as he powered down completely, getting everyone's attention. Sighing he continued. "As much as I want to hurt that man, we can't. If we do, we'll never get Wu's attention, we'll never find that metal, we'll never get home, and we'll never SAVE THE DIMESIONS!"

After one last threatening look, Vegeta powered down and absorbed his blast. "Stupid problem. I haven't killed anything in WEEKS!"

Trunks widened his eyes. "Papa's suffering from withdrawal." Then he picked up Goten by the back of his collar. "Here! You can murder Goten!"

"NANI?!" The small boy shrieked trying to free himself. "Put me down!"

Then Trunks broke out into laughter. Releasing Goten he poked him in the arm. "Calm down baka. I wouldn't do that to my best friend!"

Goten laughed a little himself, if not doubtfully. "I knew you were joking!" Then he sobered up. "Weren't you?"

Gohan rolled his eyes. "Veggie-man, you can go hunt an animal or something. Will that satisfy your stupid need to kill?"

"I'm a saiyan," Vegeta growled. "I have to kill * _something_ *!"

During this whole thing, Aniirin had been inching toward a door behind his desk. ChiChi looked up sharply and barked out an order.

"Hold it right there!"

Everyone looked up.

"Look!" Trunks said. "You've gone and scared the poor alien!"

"Look, I agree with Kakarott's brat. We need to get that metal!" Raditz exclaimed.

Gohan gave him a look. "You do know what the word 'nephew' means, don't you?"

"Of course," he answered smoothly.

"Then WHY DON'T YOU USE IT?!"

"Raditz-ojisan, just do it." Goten counseled. "You know how Gohan hates to be called a brat. Do you really want your life to be cut short?"

Goku cleared his throat loudly. "This isn't getting us anywhere! Look Aniirin, just tell us where to find Wu Fong and I won't have my son hurt you." It was an empty threat but the man didn't know that.

"Sure!" He nodded eagerly as he wrote on a pad. "Here are the directions." Then he stopped. "Do you want the long or short way?"

"What's the difference?" The older Vegeta asked impatiently.

An innocent expression plastered itself across Aniirin's face. "Besides the length, nothing."

Gohan noticed immediately that something wasn't quite right here. Before he could say anything however, ChiChi was sending him warning glances. He quieted quickly since she * _was_ * his mother in the future. And stronger at that.

Vegeta snatched the paper from his hand and began to walk out. "If we don't find him, be sure that we'll be back."

Aniirin gulped and began to write again. "Then throw that copy away. You'll need the real one."

*******

"Is this the place?" Trunks asked aloud as he gazed at the pretty nice white house, with the white picket fence surrounding it. There were colorful, if not exotic, flowers in the beds in front of both windows and the lawn was well maintained. The group all filed slowly to the door where Goku proceeded to knock.

A small, almost child-like, man opened the door. He was obviously of Chikyuu's chinese descent and was wearing tan slacks, and a brown and black vest over a white dress shirt. Smiling gently at them he ushered them in.

"I have been expecting you, my children." He said in a faint accent as he led them to a cozy living room off to the right where they all took seats. "Do you want anything? Cookies? Candy? Soda?"

"If you have some Cherry Coke that'll be great!" Goten said cheerfully before Trunks hit him.

"Baka," the other boy whispered. "We're not here on a social visit!"

Goten pouted in his direction as he rubbed the back of his head. "I was thirsty!"

"Believe me, it's so trouble at all. It's going to be a while before I can get the junsei metaru. The least I can do is to make you feel at home."

"Really now?" Goku asked licking his lips. "Then can we order in pizza? I want 10 large pepperoni, ham, bacon, and sausage pizzas..."

"Hold it Kakarott!" Vegeta held up a hand. "If you don't make that 25 I'll hurt you."

As the two older saiyans argued, Gohan and ChiChi talked things over with Wu Fong.

"About how long will it take? We're sort of on a schedule you know." ChiChi told him.

He patted her on the shoulder. "Not a long while, my dear. Just a couple of hours."

Gohan smiled for the first time that day and asked another question. "Will you go broke feeding us? I know my father can be sort of..."

"A pig?" Goten a spoke up.

"A garbage compactor?" Vegeta added.

"Greedy," Gohan finished.

Wu waved a hand. "Oh it's no problem at all. A lot of people owe me favors. Including the owner of Antonio's Pizza. How many do you need?"

Gohan shook his head. "Well we have 6 full saiyans, 3 half saiyans, and one human. Not more than 80 or 90."

Wu whistled softly. "I had heard how much saiyans could eat but I never really believed it. I might have to call at least 5 or 6 different places to get them all here within a couple of hours." He smiled at ChiChi's concerned look. "Don't worry. It's not a problem."

"Yea! I get to eat!" Goku cheered. He grabbed Vegeta in an impromptu dance. "I get to eat! I get to eat!"

"KAKAROTT!" Vegeta screamed. "I am the king of all saiyans! PUT ME DOWN!"

Goku grabbed his friend in a huge hug that left Veggie gasping for breath.

"I will kill you one day Kakarott," he rasped. "Count on it."


	21. Chapter 21

A few hours later everyone was stuffed to capacity and just waiting on Wu to lead them to what they had come for.

"You know what?" Goten said. "You're not such a bad guy."

"Well thank you. Now, follow me."

The ten of them, Goku, Kakarott, both Vegeta's, Nappa, ChiChi, Gohan, Trunks, Raditz, and Goten, all followed him to the basement where he pushed a button on the wall. Soon, a hidden doorway slid open revealing a large freight elevator.

"Sugoi!" Trunks breathed.

"It is below the surface of this planet," Wu Fong said softly. "We had to hide it from the government or they would have either taxed us horrendously or confiscated all of the junsei metaru. Probably both."

"It's not that much different than the government of Chikyuu," Gohan mused. "What kind is it? Democracy? Monarchy? Sovereignty?"

"Communism," Wu answered.

Gohan's eyes widened. "Oh."

"Let us leave now. You must go and save everyone." They all boarded and Wu pushed a numbered button for the 9th sublevel. "Hang on. The ride can get a little bumpy."

Then they started off.

The elevator lurched slightly and then slowly descended into the depths of the planet.

"A * _little_ * bumpy?!" ChiChi asked as she was thrown back into Kakarott who caught her easily.

"Sorry!" Was the answer.

*******

"Now what kind do you need exactly," he began. They were in a cart moving among rows and rows of materials. It was the black market's main warehouse. Wu Fong steered it expertly as they looked out in televisions, vcr's, microwaves, and other things as far as the eye could see.

"There are different kinds?" Gohan asked.

"There is the highly expensive kind, the generic 'junsei metaru' --which in my opinion you shouldn't get--, & the high quality kind. There are many others."

"Vegeta, call Bulma and ask her for the details."

Vegeta keyed in the frequency on the communicator. "Aren't we too far away?"

"I have no idea. Just * _try_ *!"

"Bulma here," a tired voice said.

"Onna, what kind do you need?"

"You have some?" she asked hopefully.

"Hai now tell me!"

Wu raised an eyebrow. "Does he always yell at people like this?"

"That's his wife," Goku told him.

"Oh."

"Right," he pushed the button and crossed his arms. "She said high quality."

"Alright. How much?"

"D'oh!"

Vegeta got her back and told them her answer. "She said that she needs about 10 to 15 pounds."

"Okay," he wrote it down as well. "How will you pay?"

Vegeta's eyes narrowed as he dug around in his pocket. "Will you take American Express?"

"Of course."

*******

"We're finally going home!" Gohan said happily as they loaded the metal onto their ship a few hours later.

"You miss Videl?" Goten said smirking.

A dreamy look settled on Gohan's face. "Of course...." Then he caught himself. "You brat!"

"Gohan's got a girlfriend!" ChiChi laughed. "Gohan's got a girlfriend!"

"She's not my girlfriend!" Gohan said defensively. "And what about you and Kakarott?"

She gave him a sly look. "That's different. We're getting married."

"NANI?!" Kakarott exclaimed. "How come you never discussed this with me?"

His future mate frowned. "Are you saying that you don't like me any more?"

"No, that's not it's just--"

"Then it's settled!" She smiled joyously and hugged him around his neck. "Thank you!"

Gohan and Goten laughed at their antics. "Is that how she got you Tousan?" Goten asked.

"Iie. I thought marriage was a food."

"You would!" Vegeta smirked.

"There's another reason why I want to get back to Chikyuu," Gohan said to Vegeta. "We've got something to finish."

"We do too!" Goten said loudly. "Get ready to die Midget Man!"

"Why you little--" Then Goku suddenly yanked him off to the side for a private conversation.

"I'm okay with this match with my sons and all but if you seriously hurt Goten, I will finish you off. Got that?"

Vegeta just slightly inclined his head. "What about the oldest?"

"Who Gohan?" Goku smiled. "I have faith in him. If he goes Mystic you know that you're gonna loose, don't you?"

"We'll see baka. We'll see."

Goku released him and began to walk away. "That's another thing. You need to stop calling me 'baka'. That's not my name you know. It's * _Goku_ *."

"Alright * _baka_ * I mean * _Kakarott_ *. As you wish."

"You do know Veggie-chan, that you will pay for that." He casually smirked and turned to look his friend in his eye.

Vegeta just returned the look. "I look forward to it."

"You would."


	22. Epliogue

"Well, we have to be going. I don't want a whole bunch of people to die because of us." Goku said as he approached the portal.

"Sayonara everyone!" ChiChi waved. "Hope you have a safe trip!"

"Well come see you again when Bulma stabalizes the portal!" Gohan shouted back. "Don't have your wedding for a few months, okay?"

"Hey!" Bulma protested from the communicator. "I'm a genius! The changes will be done * _way_ * before that!"

"We know Kaasan. We know," Trunks muttered.

"You know what? I wonder if I could pay a visit to Nathell when I come back?" Gohan mused.

Goku shook his head. "Absolutely not! I can't have my son labeled the "Terror of Outer Space". Besides," he suddenly smirked. "that's Vegeta's job."

"Why you--" Vegeta roared.

"Hold it!" the older ChiChi held up a hand. "Shouldn't we be going?" She motioned to the gateway before she went through.

"That's right," Gohan sighed. He hugged ChiChi hard. "I'll see you later." He also hugged Raditz, Nappa, and the rest whether they wanted it or not. Goku did the same and almost broke ribs. Stepping away, the two walked through the portal and out of sight.

*******

The next day they had all gathered at the Capsule Corporation by Goten's request.

"What did you call all of us here for brat?" Vegeta asked. "Don't you know I have better things to do!"

"Like getting beaten by me?" Goku questioned somewhat innocently.

"Hai like getting beaten by-- YOU BAKA!"

"Calm down everyone," the small boy said. "I have these to show you!" He pulled out a paper envelope and spread the items all over the table.

"Pictures?" Gohan questioned.

"Yep!" he said happily. "I took them on our trip! See, there's Gohan posing in front of a mirror on the ship in his Mickey Mouse boxer shorts...."

"Where the hell did you get that from?!" his brother shrieked while he turned red.

"Here's Vegeta-ojisan lookin' beat up after Trunks won the match..."

Trunks grinned in remembrance while Vegeta just got angrier.

"Here's Tousan and Kaasan together * _before_ * we left..."

ChiChi gasped at the picture and snatched it from him. "When did you take that?!"

Goten snickered. "Tousan was so busy he didn't even sense me!"

Goku blushed while Vegeta laughed.

"So you * _do_ * know how to do that after all Kakarott!"

"Here's another of Vegeta when he tripped trying to go down the stairs at ChiChi's house..."

Bulma broke out into laughter. "Mr. Bad Ass can't even walk straight!"

"Why you little brat!" Vegeta yelled. "I'm going to kill you when we fight!"

"Kill him and I'll kill you!" Goku and ChiChi said in unison. The latter was already readying her rolling pin.

"We did have fun," Gohan said, "even if Vegeta won't admit it."

"Veggie-chan had the most fun at the casino...." Goku said before Bulma snapped.

"CASINO?!" she yelled at her mate.

"I-uh- but..."

Then the yelling began.


End file.
